The Samurai Ninja
by Zashire
Summary: Samurai and Ninja. Two different warriors, with two different codes. But how does a single person follow both paths instead of just one or the other? Naruto adopted by Asuma and Kurenai. Naru/Tema, Asu/Kure.
1. According to Plan?

**Disclaimer** for the whole story: I don't own Naruto.

Well, I'm back! Here's the rewritten version of 'The Samurai Ninja' brought to you by... me!

**Full Summary:** Ninja and Samurai are both, in a sense, warriors. However, they are next to nothing alike. One follows a code of honor in which he will not attack an unarmed man, while the other remains in the shadows of the night and takes down his enemies when they least expect it. They have different ways of taking care of the same things. But what happens to those who try to follow both codes? How do they make it work? The answer varies among those who attempt it, especially for those who have an ancient demon trapped inside of them... However, the job is always easier when you have someone to help you get started down your path.

Naruto adopted by... ? fiction (fairly obvious if you look at the pairings)

**Pairings:** NaruTema, AsuKure

**UPDATE: **Minato and Kyuubi fight scene added!

**2nd UPDATE:** Okay guys! I forgot to mention this earlier: this story will **not** contain Yaoi or Yuri in any way, shape, or form. It will be Naruto and girl. Nothing else. Just to clear any confusion up. Continue reading. ^^

**3rd UPDATE:** Wow. I can not stop switching the title of this story, be it the rewritten version or the old one (used to be 'Another Way Up the Tree'). I almost positive that this one is here to stay. I finally have a more definite path of where this story is going. ^^ That should be a good thing. Anyway, I just felt like updating this. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and great Holiday Season! I don't know who celebrates what, so please, take your pick. See you all later!

**4th UPDATE: **12/28/08: I think I've finally locked in which pairing I will be using for this story. The reason it said Naru/Girl before was because I hadn't fully developed the storyline yet. As it is completed, I think I've finally figured out who I want to slip in there. I will tell you this: the pairing could always change, but for now it is set up to be NarutoTemari.

Nothing else to say, I don't think. Well, on with the story!

The Samurai Ninja

Chapter 1: According to Plan?

By: Zashire

"Hold it off until Hokage-sama gets here!" shouted a dark haired ninja commander as he leapt through his comrades to prepare another attack.

Countless numbers of shinobi were lined up along the walls of their village to defend it from the evil that loomed above them. They all had their weapons out or were preparing a jutsu to use against the evil creature. For what hovered overhead was what some people could only dream about in there worst nightmares. It was the most powerful monster that any one of them had ever seen in their lifetimes, and it radiated a large amount of killing intent with each step it took.

It was the nine tailed fox, otherwise known as the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

The evil being seemed to smirk at the ninja that it stood over. He watched them fail at their attempts at trying to take him down with their pathetic attacks. Humans were so pitiful. The demonic entity felt something pierce his foot every so slightly, and glanced down to see three ninja throwing all sorts of weapons at him. Without any thought, the fox used his paw to shoo them away, which in reality involved them being sent through half the forest.

The creature advanced closer to the wall and started to kill more ninja without mercy. Even though most of the ninja knew that this would be their death day, they still stood strong and did their best to hold the fox back until their Hokage came. No one would cower out, especially when they knew that their village leader had an ace up his sleeve.

xxx

A little before the attack...

From a room at the Konoha hospital, a bright blonde haired man could hear the screams of his village's ninja and civilians alike. Each scream pierced his heart because he knew that for every shriek he heard, another person in the village had died. It hurt him because he was supposed to be their protector, and from where he was right then, he couldn't do anything to help them. What hurt him even more was what he was going to have to do once he left the hospital.

Before him was his favorite person in the world, the woman whom he loved the most, Namikaze Kushina. She was in the process of delivering their son who would be named 'Naruto.' The name had come from the only book that the blonde man actually liked of his sensei's series. Kushina instantly took a liking to the name and they both agreed on it. The blonde smiled at the thought, but saddened when he thought of their son.

It didn't make sense to be sad at the thought of having a child, some might say, but that wasn't _why _he was sad. He was sad because of what he would have to do to the child once he was born. It was all within the plan to take down the Kyuubi.

He looked back at Kushina and smiled. _At least Naruto will have you in his life_, he thought. He couldn't feel his hand anymore because of how much his red headed wife had been squeezing it. It was a small price to pay to bring a new life into the world.

After a few more seconds of being on the receiving end of a numb hand, the blonde haired man heard a baby crying and saw that his son had fully come out and was being cleaned off and wrapped up by a doctor. He smiled and looked down at Kushina.

"Wonderful job, my darling," he said in a soft voice.

Even though she was exhausted, she managed to pull her husband into a strangling hug. When she let go, the blonde man sat back and almost choked for air. The doctor handed Kushina their baby and smiled softly. He said a quick 'congratulations' and gave them some privacy by going to get a birth certificate. He left a nurse by the door in case they needed anything.

Kushina smiled down at their baby. She had managed to quiet him down to a point where he was staring at his surroundings and looked like he was about to fall asleep. The red head smiled when she saw that he looked like a younger version of her husband. Blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Hello, my little Naruto," she said in a soft voice. The baby looked up at his mother before he slowly fell asleep. "Minato, take a look at our–" She paused in the middle of her sentence while addressing her husband when she remembered what he wanted to do with the blonde baby. "NO! You can't do this him! He's only an infant!"

She quickly pulled Naruto close again, and hugged him to her chest tightly. Minato sat down on the bed, and his wife gave him a look the broke his heart.

"I'm sorry, but we've been over it before. This is the only way we can defeat the Kyuubi," he said in a sad tone, and reached for the blonde baby.

"NO!" Kushina jerked back into the bed. "Ow!" She shouted because her body was still sore and exhausted from giving birth.

Minato tried to settle his wife down and reached out to her. She took it as him trying to take the baby away from her again so she jerked back farther and let out another holler of pain. The blonde Hokage flinched and called to the nurse for help.

"Yes?" The nurse asked as she walked up. She took in the sight of Kushina crying with their baby in her arms and stared at Minato questioningly.

Before Minato could answer the woman, a ninja burst into the room and cried out, "Hokage-sama! Reports from ninja say that the Kyuubi has almost breached the village's walls. It will be here very soon! Sarutobi-sama needs you at the Tower as soon as possible!"

Minato froze upon hearing those words. The Kyuubi was almost _in _Konoha? He needed to get moving and quickly. He turned to the messenger ninja and nurse and dismissed them. When he faced his wife again, he saw that she was staring at him. The look he gave her in response was one of regret and sorrow. Her tears continued to fall as she looked down at the small baby in her arms. She kissed him on the head and whispered 'I love you' before she extended her arms to hand him over to Minato.

The blond man stared at her, and she nodded slightly. He reached out and took their son out of his wife's arms. Immediately after, her arms dropped to her sides, and she turned her head so that she was facing the window.

It was very dark outside... but that was nothing compared to what the woman was feeling in her heart. She felt lonely. All because of one monster, her life had been turned upside down. She and Minato were supposed to have their son, Naruto, and raise him to be a great man, maybe a ninja. They would let him choose. They were going to grow old together and watch Naruto raise a family of his own when he reached their age. When he had his own kids, they would spoil them rotten because that's what grandparents were supposed to do. Most of all, they would watch their child grow and live, with each other by their side the whole way.

That couldn't happen anymore... all because of the damn monster that was attacking their village. Her husband had tried everything, but couldn't come up with a way to kill the thing that didn't involve sacrificing a life. She had watched him cry when he came to the realization that he would have to screw up their unborn son's life, all in order to protect the village. She had cried with him when she heard that.

It wasn't fair. Now their son would have to grow up without a father. Sure, Naruto would have her, but it would never be the same without Minato around the house. She would have to do her best to raise their child all by herself. Life was so cruel.

"Kushina," Minato said, which broke her train of thought. She looked over to him, and tried to give a smile to tell him that she was okay, but found that she couldn't. Instead, her lips quivered and she lurched forward despite the pain in her abdomen. She grabbed onto Minato, and was careful enough to avoid hitting Naruto, and broke down in his shoulder. She cried at least ten times harder than before and kept on screaming into his shoulder about how their lives weren't fair, and how none of this should have happened to them.

Minato shifted his son to his left arm, and in turn, used his right arm to hold Kushina against himself. He buried his face in her hair and tightened his grip around her body to the point where she couldn't move, or even breathe for that matter without him feeling it. The blonde man felt a few tears make their way down his face, unknowingly, as he thought about the life he was going to leave behind. The one where he would live with Kushina and Naruto until the day he grew old and died.

Kushina's cries eventually turned to small, random hiccups after a few minutes of having her face in her lover's shoulder. When she had calmed down, she felt something wet on her head and backed up a bit to look Minato in the eyes. She saw that he had been crying, too.

Minato looked back at Kushina when he realized that she had left his grip. Ever so slowly, he reached over and wiped the tears from her face, which caused her to give him a small smile. She reached up with one of her hands and laid it over his. She wrapped her delicate fingers around his big hand and closed her eyes. She squeezed it for a few moments before she opened her eyes again.

"I think it's time," the woman almost whispered to the man in front of her.

"I think it is," he responded in a low voice.

His wife, in turn, used the hand she was holding to pull him closer to her. In that moment, their lips met for the very last time. They stayed like that for what seemed like ages, but in reality was only a few seconds. He gave her one final hug, and she returned it immediately. She was going to enjoy her last minutes with her husband if it was the last thing she did.

"I love you so much, Kushina," he whispered into her ear before breaking the loving embrace.

"I love you too, Minato, so much," she responded in a soft tone.

Minato got off the bed with Naruto still in his left arm. He helped Kushina get back into a lying down position, and tucked her in like he would a child. He smiled softly down at his wife.

"Take care of our son. Hiruzen will deliver him back here when the sealing is finished," he explained to the woman on the bed.

In response, she nodded slightly. "Don't worry, I will." She gave him a big, cheesy grin that helped cover up her tears somewhat.

Minato avoided the words 'good bye' and said a quick 'I love you' to his wife before he used his trademark jutsu to get to the Hokage Tower. He had left a seal for the Hiraishin no Jutsu on the bottom side of his desk in the office to get there for emergencies such as the one he was in right then.

"Are you ready, Minato?" the blonde haired man heard a voice call his name, and recognized it as Sarutobi's. He turned to see the man known as Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, all dressed and ready to go in his battle armor.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Minato responded. "Let's go. The ninja are waiting for us to get there."

Hiruzen nodded. They both soon found themselves on the rooftop of the Tower, and started to head in the direction of the battlefront, which wasn't very far anymore since the Kyuubi had made it _into_ Konoha. Minato was nervous as hell, and couldn't stop his mind from thinking about the possible flukes that could happen with his plan. What if he were to screw the sealing up? Would the entire village be at risk? More importantly, would Kushina and Naruto be at risk? He was snapped out of those horrible thoughts when the retired Hokage spoke up.

"He is a beautiful child, Minato," Hiruzen spoke, but continued to look forward. Minato couldn't help but give a small smile at the comment. "Rest assured, should Kushina-san ever need any help in caring for Naruto, the Sarutobi clan will be the first to provide it."

Minato cracked a grin and thanked his old friend for the help. The Sarutobi clan was wealthy and large, and was almost on equal grounds with the Hyuuga and the Uchiha. Having them help back up Kushina and Naruto made him relax a bit. If a problem were to ever arise, his family would be fine thanks to the disagreement between the other two powerful clans. They could never agree on anything, and they would intentionally go out of their ways to go up against each other on different arguments. That worked in his favor perfectly.

"Thank you very much, Hiruzen," Minato smiled over to the older man.

"No thanks are needed," the Sandaime responded, and smiled shortly after. "We should be the ones thanking you because of what you are about to do. We are only ensuring that the family you are leaving behind will live safely."

Minato nodded, and decided to leave it at that. They soon found themselves at the Kyuubi battlefront, and stopped on the nearest building.

Minato turned to Hiruzen. "Is everything in the cave set up?" He received a nod in response. The blonde looked down at his son with a sad expression. "I'm so sorry, Naruto," he whispered, so quietly that the retired Hokage almost missed it.

The blonde Hokage pulled his son close and gave him one last hug. They stayed like that for several moments before Minato let go. He turned back to Hiruzen and walked closer to him. The blonde then shifted his and Kushina's child over to the older man. When the retired Hokage had a firm grip on the child, Minato backed up and nodded to the other man. Hiruzen nodded back and watched as Minato took off in the direction of the Kyuubi.

Hiruzen took off in another direction, while carrying his friend's child. He was headed for the cave where they had planned to do the sealing at. It wasn't a really well known cave because it was on the backside of the Hokage Monument, and almost no one ever went there.

The old man arrived at the sealing place within a few minutes of saying farewell to Minato. He had to depend on speed because he had no way of contacting the current Hokage to tell them when they were ready. They just had to depend on their timing.

"Sarutobi-sama! Please come this way! We have to move quickly!" shouted one of the several ANBU that was helping the process move along.

Hiruzen gave a short nod and followed the ANBU into the cave. Almost immediately, they came upon a circle with a cushion in the middle. Said circle was surrounded by several candles, which were all lit and were glowing brightly. Around the circle were several men who were presumably waiting for the arrival of the retired Hokage.

The older man started to put his part of the plan into action and ran into the middle of the circle. He placed the still sleeping child on the cushion and made sure that he wouldn't move at least until the sealing started. He then walked over to the edge of the circle and told everyone to wait for the process to begin.

xxx

After Minato had left Hiruzen with his and Kushina's child, he had taken off in the direction of the Kyuubi once more. He would have to be at the very front of the battle to accomplish his task. He used Hiraishin several times to make the process of getting there even faster, and before he knew it, he was at his destined location.

He saw that his sensei had already summoned the toad boss on which he was going to do the sealing jutsu, and thanked him silently. He would need just about all of the chakra he had to complete the jutsu, and trying to keep a summoned animal up while doing it just wouldn't end successfully.

Minato thought of the best way to get to the top of the toad, and shouted out Jiraiya's name. Jiraiya looked over and spotted his student just in time to catch the kunai that had come whizzing up at him. He realized what the blonde was doing when he saw that the kunai he now held had three points rather than the usual one point. Minato soon appeared right next to the kunai only to receive a bop on the head.

"Damn brat. You could have killed me if you hadn't caught my attention, as I _was_ a little preoccupied with trying to help some ninja fight that thing," Jiraiya said in annoyance while pointing to the fox that was almost overhead.

Minato was about to respond when they heard cheers coming from the crowds of ninja below. They were shouting things like 'The Yondaime's here!' and 'We're saved!' The blonde man decided to ignore the cheers for a few moments while he finished talking with his sensei.

"Sorry, but I was kind of in a rush. By the way, Hiruzen should be ready by now because I broke up with him over five minutes ago, and it doesn't take too long to get to the backside of the Hokage Monument," Minato explained to his sensei.

Jiraiya gave a nod. "Well, Gamabunta's all yours now." He put a hand on his student's shoulder. "You've become a great man, and I'm sorry to see you end like this."

Minato gave a small smile to Jiraiya. "It's my duty as Hokage to do this. I can't let anyone else take my place in this matter."

Jiraiya gave an amused smile. "Stubborn as always I see." Minato gave a small chuckle. "Don't worry, though. If Hiruzen-sensei ever needs any help in assisting Kushina, I'll be there. They have my support."

The blonde Hokage smiled at this. "Thanks, Jiraiya-sensei. That really means a lot to me."

The Gama Sennin gave a nod once more. "No problem." He glanced at the Kyuubi quickly who was preoccupied with some of the Konoha shinobi at the moment. "I think you'd better go finish it off." Minato gave a nod. "It's been nice knowing you. Good bye, Minato."

"Good bye, sensei," the blonde replied. "Tell Kushina that I'm sorry it turned out like this and that I love the both of them." He saw Jiraiya nod as he leapt off of the summoned animal. The blonde turned back to face the Kyuubi. "Ready, Gamabunta?" he asked the animal he was standing on.

"Hai," was the short response he received. He felt the toad move, and before he knew it, they were closer to the Kyuubi than almost any other ninja had been.

As he began the first few seals of his ultimate sealing jutsu, the Kyuubi stared down at him in curiosity. What was the foolish man doing? The creature knew that he would be able to stop whatever jutsu the man could come up with, but this one had him curious. All of the mortals around him had stopped attacking once this man came onto the battlefield, so he must be worth something. He must be pretty damn tasty, too.

Just before Minato finished the last few hands signs, he stopped and looked up as the Kyuubi moved closer to them. The fox bared its fangs and moved to a running speed. He was going to get his food no matter what. Normally, the fox wouldn't be so rabid; after all, he was a demon lord. But every once in a while, every animal needed a treat. The blonde mortal before him fit that description perfectly. The fox could only imagine how he tasted. It wasn't long until his mind had been cleared of all thoughts of attacking the others, and had switched to ones of getting the treat before him. He smelled as tasty as he looked.

The Kyuubi had never seen a human being look so tasty before. They almost always smelled of other dead animals, and just stank everything up. But not now. No. This one actually smelled _good _in comparison to the others. He actually smelled _good_. No way was the fox going to pass his chance up. He could hardly even think about eating him once he caught him because his animal instincts had slowly taken him over.

The blonde Hokage watched in morbid fascination as the fox ran toward him and Gamabunta, foaming at the mouth. Just what had taken over the creature to make him want to attack mindlessly like that? Not that he wasn't doing that already when he first attacked the village, but this was different. Before that, he seemed to be actually focusing on everything he was doing, but now, it was all on him and the toad.

When the fox was within meters of them, Gamabunta jumped high into the air. The fox's head jerked up so he could see where his prey had gone. Damn the toad for taking his food. He would be going down, too. Maybe he'd be a good desert after he ate the human. The fox turned as they began to lose air and sent his tails out to grab them as the met the ground.

Gamabunta saw this and brought out his sword. He held it over his head, just barely avoiding Minato, and prepared to bring it down on the fox. After a few more seconds, Gamabunta, heaved the heavy piece of metal over his head, and aimed directly downward. He thrust it forward once more, directly into one of the Kyuubi's tails.

The fox hollered out in pain, and tried to retract his tail, but found that he couldn't because the sword was still in it. Damn the toad to hell! He huffed in pain, but did his best to ignore it. The creature lunged forward since his prey was very close by, and it would only be a few more minutes until he had him.

Minato saw this and shouted for Gamabunta to jump back at the last minute because he had a plan. The old toad nodded, but held his sword firm. He wasn't going to let the fox get _any_ advantage in the battle. It could mean the difference between the winner and the loser. In this battle, the loser might not com out alive. He would be having none of that.

When the Kyuubi descended on them, the large toad prepared himself. He leaned back on his hind legs to prepare for a back flip. Minato had better be willing to fight the fox almost himself because he was running out of chakra. Jiraiya had used him _way_ too much before the Hokage made it there, and it was taking away from his performance now. That wasn't good at all.

Just as Gamabunta pulled the sword out of the fox's tail, he leapt off the ground... only to be pulled back down by a swipe of the fox's claw. He hadn't taken that factor into consideration. The fox _did_ have claws, after all, so why hadn't he thought of that? The claw only hit his shoulder, so he wasn't damaged too much.

"Minato, you'll have to come up with another plan, because I can't do what you requested." The blonde Hokage nodded. Gamabunta was still being held down by the Kyuubi, so what could he do? ...That's it!

The fox was started to bring his other claw down on the toad, trying in any way he could to disable the summoned animal. He briefly heard the mortal yell for the toad to jump back. He would _not _be getting away with that.

When the toad pushed off of the Kyuubi, the fox finally brought his claw down on the summon. In one clean swipe, he put a deep gash over the toad's left eye, which caused the animal to grunt, clearly biting back a scream of pain.

Minato stared down at Gamabunta from atop his head. The toad kept his right eye closed, and the blonde man hoped that he hadn't lost the usage of his eye for the rest of his life all because of him. He quickly shook his head. He watched as the toad summon fulfilled his end of the bargain and got them a way back from the Kyuubi, despite him not being able to use one of his eyes. He needed to end this now before they ran out of chakra and before someone got hurt again. The Kyuubi was closing in on them once again, so he made a quick hand sign.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" the blonde Hokage cried out. A solid copy of him appeared next to the blonde man. He turned to it. "Katon jutsu! Now!"

The clone looked at its surroundings and instantly caught on. "Finally need the help of the clones, eh?" He taunted to his creator.

Minato sighed, but did his best to focus. His clones were back talking him. How embarrassing. He shrugged that off and focused once more. "Bunta, oil! I don't know if this will work, but it's our last chance!" He turned to the clone once more. "Make this work." The clone nodded once more and watched as his creator went through some hand signs. "I can't help much, but to use the seal, we need the fox to stay still for a few minutes. This is our only way. If we fail, I don't know what will become of the village."

The clone sighed. Talk about pressure. Screwing up one thing could mean screwing up an entire ninja village. This had to end well.

Both Minato and his clone sped through hand signs faster than seemed humanly possible. When they finished, Gamabunta began to spit out oil at the oncoming fox. The two blondes nodded to each other and sent out their prepared jutsu.

"Katon: Karyuu Endan!" the clone called out. He aimed his technique at Gamabunta's oil, and when the two met, it instantly caused a massive fire to be sent in the Kyuubi's direction.

The real Minato nodded at the success so far. He could only hope that his attack would be powerful enough. "Fuuton: Daitoppa!"

He didn't risk using anything more powerful than that for the fear of losing too much chakra to perform the final attack. His attack was sent directly to toward the massive fire chain. The flames increased in size and speed from the wind, but the Kyuubi continued to run forward.

The large fox spit out a small chain of flames, but they weren't any match to the combined attacks. The Kyuubi's attack held out for several moments, but soon went directly back at him. He was sent crashing to the ground, and caused a few buildings to be knocked over in the process. His head was sent through a small section of trees until he hit a rock.

Minato nodded to his clone in thanks and dismissed him. He turned down to Gamabunta. "Can you take me over there now?"

The large toad nodded and landed in a place that would usually be too close for comfort near the demon lord. His eye remained closed as he stared down at the beast. He honestly couldn't believe what the Hokage was going to do with the thing. He wished he could just kill the creature right then and there to spare everyone the grief, but it would be next to impossible to do.

The fox's eyes cracked open to see a large toad with a blurry thing on its back doing something. He slowly stood up and was shaking slightly. The creature felt dizzy and disoriented from hitting his head on the damn rock. What was the blurry figure doing?

Gamabunta saw the fox get up, but didn't do anything for fear of messing up Minato's sealing pattern. He was ready to be commanded to smack the fox down again, but was forced to wait. This was the end for the fox, and he knew it.

Minato flew through the hand seals for the jutsu and stopped on the last one. Thoughts of Naruto and Kushina flew through his mind before he finally cried out, "Shiki Fuujin!"

A tingle ran up Minato's spine as he felt the icy hand of death upon his shoulder. He knew that the Death God was right behind him, and it made him nervous as hell. The blonde felt his life start to leave his body. It felt like his body was being torn apart, which it reality, it pretty much was.

The Kyuubi wasn't much better off either. It was feeling pain that it had never felt before. No mere mortal should have been able to hurt the ultimate demon this much. It was unheard of. The large fox was supposed to be the one that inflicted large amounts of pain or death upon his victims, not the other way around!

Both the human and the demon felt the same pain, and were having their souls ripped from their bodies, thanks to the Death God. Minato used the last of his strength to send the Kyuubi's essence to the cave where he knew Naruto and Hiruzen were. Even as he sent the Kyuubi's soul to the sealing zone, he felt his body start to collapse.

_I have to finish this_, he thought. No way was he going to stop halfway through and possibly risk destroying the entire village in the process. _Come on, come on_, he repeated to himself several times.

All at once, everything ended. When Minato could tell that the Kyuubi's soul was within the distance of the seal that it would need to be, he let the ninja in the cave take care of the rest. He felt the last of his chakra drain out of him the moment he stopped trying to control the direction in which the Kyuubi's soul went.

He watched as the Death God cut the souls from their bodies, and finally collapsed to the ground. The blonde managed to crack his eyes open for a few moments as his sensei came up to take his body away. When Jiraiya noticed that his student still had some life left in him, he bent down to hear what the man was trying to say.

"Naruto... seen as hero... by villagers," was all the dying man managed to say before the life left his body for good. The white haired ninja nodded sadly at his student's last wish and picked up his body. He put the deceased Hokage on his back so he could carry him over to the cave where his sensei was. Before he left, he watched as the Kyuubi's body fell to the ground and destroyed several more buildings in the process. _Kami, I hope no one was in there._

Had he looked a little closer, he would have noticed that one of the buildings the Kyuubi's body hit was the exact place where the woman he considered to be his daughter-in-law was staying at.

xxx

Hope you liked it!

I don't have a schedule I'm going to stick to, so you never know when this will be updated! It shouldn't be too long, though, since I _do_ have another 27K or so in stock that I just finished typing. Who knows how many more there will be after that? I can say one thing: it will be a _LOT!_ Yay! –insert crazy cheer here-

Okay, enough of that... Well, tell me what you think!

See ya next chapter on 'Another Way Up the Tree!'

Zashire


	2. New Solution

**A/N:** Wow. I can't believe how early I'm posting this, but enjoy it while I'm in the mood. Also, thanks for those who gave me some criticism. I'm making this up as I go, so there might be some pretty dang obvious plot holes. I'm sorry for those of you were mad at me with the way Kushina went, but that's how it is. I tried to come up with a way other than childbirth or something else like 'she just died randomly two days after the battle,' and this is what I ended up with. She has one last part in this chapter, but that's all I'm saying.

If you feel the need to tell I'm missing something, please PM me or review. Everything helps.

Side Note: I've added somewhat more of a battle scene between the Kyuubi and Minato in the last chapter.

The Samurai Ninja

Chapter 2: New Solution

By: Zashire

The white haired man groaned as he heard the cries of confusion from the ninja below him. They were all wondering why a big cloud of red chakra had come out of the Kyuubi's body and had gone to an area by the Hokage Monument. They thought the Yondaime was going to kill the beast that had hurt them, and not do something as weird as what had just happened. That meant that they were going to be questioning the Sandaime Hokage as soon as everything was over.

He was about to dismiss the giant toad when the Kyuubi's body suddenly burst into flames. Everyone almost fell over from the shock of that happening. Thankfully, no one was killed in the outburst, and only some had received minor burns. It was surprising, to say the least. No one had expected that to happen.

Several ninja with a water affinity started using suiton jutsu to put out the fire. It was quickly reduced to steam after a few minutes of teamwork. Jiraiya sighed. It was time to get moving. The sealing had probably just been finished, and he would need to be there to speak with his sensei. He jumped off of his long time summon and landed on the ground in front of it. He looked up to it and their eyes met.

"Thank you for all of your help today, Gamabunta," Jiraiya said in an appreciative tone.

The toad gave a nod in response. "It was my pleasure, though I will miss seeing that brat around here."

The white haired man gave a sad nod. "I have to get going. Say hi to the family for me." The large toad nodded, and then disappeared a big puff of smoke. Jiraiya smiled before he turned around and leapt off in the direction of the cave.

On the way to the cave, several ANBU made their way over to him. _Great, time to get interrogated,_ he thought to himself. They joined his pace and started to question him, which annoyed Jiraiya to no end.

"Jiraiya-sama, do you know what happened back there?" asked the ANBU to his left.

Before Jiraiya could say anything in response, another other one spoke up. "Yes, and what happened to Hokage-sama?" The second ANBU was staring at the lump of a man on Jiraiya's back questioningly.

The Gama Sennin sighed. There was no point in trying to lie to them because they were trained specifically for telling what was truth and what was not. That, and the fact that they would just follow him to wherever he was going if they suspected something was up.

"Yes, I know what happened back there, but I am not inclined to tell you quite yet." The ANBU were about to protest for the lack of information, but Jiraiya beat them to it. "Just shut up and follow me. I'm headed towards Hiruzen-sensei right now. Everything will be explained once we get there." The ANBU seemed satisfied with that answer and let Jiraiya lead them to where their retired Hokage was.

xxx

In the cave of where the sealing of the Kyuubi was to take place, several ninja had gathered around the circle which contained a newborn baby. They were all ready to use their chakra to control the Kyuubi's chakra and force it into the new born baby at a moment's notice. They were essentially going to combine two souls into one body.

It was an unprecedented act in Konoha because they had never had this type of problem before, and they all prayed to Kami that it would work. They needed both the boy _and_ the Kyuubi to survive to make this act successful because if the baby died in the process, then the Kyuubi's chakra would kill them all because it was still under the control of the Kyuubi, and there was no way in hell that the fox would _allow_ itself to be sealed. Especially not in a small child who would be powerless for several years to come. Absolute focus was a necessity.

Along with the ninja, there were several medic nin there to help heal the baby and the ninja if they received any wounds from the process. Most of them were women that looked like they were about to break down into tears because of what they knew would happy to the small child in front of them. They tried to comfort each other, but were severely unsuccessful.

One man stood in front of them all, waiting to alert his partners the moment he saw the red cloud of chakra. His name was Sarutobi Hiruzen. He still couldn't believe that this was happening and knew that nothing could be done otherwise. He knew that they would just have to hope for the best because they _had_ to succeed. There were no 'ifs' involved. If they failed this, then the entire village would be at stake – maybe even the entire country.

He refused to think about it that way. He had faith in the village's ninja, and knew deep within his heart that they could pull anything off if they really wanted to. Those were the thoughts that kept him, and all the others moving, and looking forward to a bright tomorrow.

"It's coming!" shouted one of the ANBU to the rest of the group.

Coming it was. Just over the horizon, they could all see a red cloud of what they knew was the Kyuubi's chakra and soul. It was moving very quickly toward them, and they had little time to prepare. Everyone scrambled back into there positions and awaited the arrival of what had destroyed a good portion of their village only minutes prior.

Within a few seconds, cloud had been sucked into the cave and was headed directly for the seal that had been painted on the blonde haired baby's belly. The moment it touched his skin, the baby's eyes jerked open and he cried as loud as his lungs would allow. Tears streamed down his face from the burning sensation that put his nerves into overdrive.

After each and every second that passed, the red cloud continued to grow smaller and smaller. After each and every second that passed, the baby's scream grew louder and louder. After each and every second that passed, the hearts of the people there broke more and more.

Finally, one medic nin snapped and ran toward the baby that was in the middle of the circle. She didn't get very far because one of the ANBU stopped her. She struggled against him, but couldn't break free because of his iron hard grip. All she could do was watch as the baby continued to cry. Watching him brought tears to her own eyes.

"Let me go! I have to help him!" she shouted as she tried to struggle once again.

"No! Go in there and you'll die!" he responded in a loud voice.

She looked at him, horrified. "Wh- What do you mean?"

"Precisely what I said. The only thing that's keeping the child alive right now is the chakra from these ninja, and the seal on his belly." He looked down at her when he noticed she wasn't struggling anymore. He tried letting go of her, but she immediately started to collapse to the floor. The ANBU was quick enough to capture her again before she hit the ground, and sat down with her in his lap. "Don't worry, it'll be over soon enough, Kurenai-chan," the ANBU whispered into her ear.

She seemed to calm down with those words, but still let her tears fall. "I still can't believe that this is happening to Kushina-sensei's son. He's was only born less than an hour ago," she managed to choke out.

The ANBU behind her nodded slowly. "This world is unfair to everyone." Kurenai nodded in response. "To some more so than others."

"It's just not fair that sensei had to go through all this. First her husband died, now their child has been sentenced to a life of misery. It's like getting a death sentence the moment you're born, Asuma-kun! It's not fair!" She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them before burying her tear streaked face into them. Asuma wrapped his arms around her and held her close as they waited for everything to be over.

After a few more minutes of everyone flinching at each of the baby's shrieks of pain, it was finally over. Several of the ninja that had been controlling the chakra passed out the moment everything was stopped. Everyone in the cave watched as the chakra finally stopped entering the baby's body. The baby was still crying at the top of his lungs even when it stopped, and no one could blame him.

Kurenai instantly shot up and out of Asuma's lap when she heard someone give the 'all clear.' Before Asuma had even realized that she was gone, the black haired woman was already over by her sensei's son. She had taken off the cloak she was wearing because of the cold weather, and had wrapped the naked baby up in it. When Asuma looked up, he saw her holding the baby in her arms and walking back toward him.

No one protested upon seeing this because they already knew who Kushina's team was made up of, but they all watched as the retired Hokage walked over to the duo. Asuma glanced over and saw his father approaching them. He would let his father do the talking first.

Asuma was slightly surprised when his father didn't talk, but motioned for the two to follow him. They did so obediently, as did everyone else in the cave. All of the people began to pack up there things and leave so no one would find out what had been going on in there.

The retired Hokage made it to the entrance of the cave and almost jumped back something landed in front of him. That was, until he saw a big white blob of messy hair. He decided to wait for the man in front of him to speak.

"Sensei," was all he said before he unloaded his cargo onto the floor of the cave. Everyone who knew what had happened bowed their heads in respect for their fallen leader. The two ANBU who were standing next to Jiraiya looked at each other, and then at the Gama Sennin before on of them spoke up.

"Would any of you mind explaining what happened out there?" The ANBU knew it was disrespectful to ask questions like that in front of his superiors, but he and his partner were getting really annoyed with being out of the loop.

Jiraiya decided to use that moment to explain why the extra two ANBU were there to his sensei. "You see, apparently the _entire_ population of our ninja saw the red cloud come toward this cave and became curious. These two here want to know what happened. The same goes for every ninja in this village." Jiraiya looked at the ground. The hopes for giving the blonde haired baby a normal life had just severely decreased thanks to only one thing that everyone saw.

The retired Hokage looked up and spoke in a sad tone, "I see. Very well then. Our only option is to explain this to every ninja in the village." Several people looked at him as if he were crazy. This was the best plain one of their past Hokage could come up with? "We have no other option! Some day they will find out what is inside of the child. Would you rather them know now or later?"

The people could only reluctantly agree with the old man's logic. It would be better if the villagers were told the information first hand by one of their leaders rather than hear it from a random ninja who already knew so they wouldn't have to risk any rumors about it getting out of hand.

"Fine, but at least find a way that prevents the people of this generation from telling the people of the future generations. You have to give this kid some kind of a chance at life. It wouldn't help him live at all if everyone in his generation looks at him like he's a demon rather than a human," Asuma finished off sadly while looking at his father directly in the eyes.

Hiruzen nodded slowly. "Agreed." Asuma smiled softly from behind his mask, and nodded his thanks.

The other two ANBU who were still standing next to Jiraiya were about ready to kill someone, be it friend or foe. "What the hell is going on here!?"

Jiraiya immediately bopped the one who spoke out of turn on the head. "Shut up, brat!" The ANBU was about to do something in retaliation, but stopped when Hiruzen intervened.

"Sorry about that, you two. I would explain now if I could, but we need to settle the village down. We don't have the time at the moment. What you have seen and heard here never happened, got it?" the retired Hokage ordered more than asked in a serious voice.

"But–" one of the ANBU started but was stopped by a glare from the Sandaime. He gave in. "Got it." His partner nodded in agreement.

"Very well. Dismissed," the older man said with a wave of his hand. The two ANBU in front of him were gone in less than a second. He turned back to everyone else and addressed them. "Since Minato is gone and we are without a Hokage, I will be having a meeting with the council about either reinstating myself as the Hokage for a while longer, or voting on a new person to take the title of Godaime Hokage. I need all of you to help spread the word that a meeting will be held in the council meeting room in twenty minutes. Well, except for the medic nin, Jiraiya, and Asuma, you guys stay. The rest of you go alert the clan heads NOW!"

Everyone but the people who specialized in medical jutsu, a certain member of the Sannin, and a certain ANBU vanished in swirls of leaves. Once the place was cleared out, Asuma looked at his father expectantly.

"As for you medic nin, I need all of you to go help out at the hospital. Kurenai, take care of Naruto for me, and see to it that he is returned to your sensei. Asuma, you go with her." All of the medic nin, and Asuma, nodded and left the cave. They all made their way to the hospital as quickly as they possibly could. Patients from all over the village would require attention, and each second they spent goofing around was another second that they lost in healing someone.

Hiruzen turned to Jiraiya, who was now looking down at the body of his student with a far-off expression on his face. The older man walked over to his student and rested a hand on his shoulder. Jiraiya turned to his sensei and they locked eyes for a brief moment before Hiruzen spoke up.

"We need to get to the office. Could you please bring Minato's body there with us?" the white haired man's sensei requested. Jiraiya nodded in response and put the deceased Hokage on his back like he had done earlier. They both made their way over to the cave opening and jumped off into the darkness of the night in the direction of the Hokage Tower.

xxx

When Kurenai and the rest of the medic nin arrived at the hospital, they looked at it horrified. In front of them was no longer the hospital that they had worked at for a long time, and had come to know and love. No. In front of them was a building that only remained halfway standing. The other half was in crumbles on the earth's surface.

No one said anything for what seemed like hours. No one knew _what_ to say. They could only stare in shock at what had happened. Sure, they knew that the Kyuubi had attacked, but they didn't know that it had made it _that far_ into their village's walls. One of the medic nin regained her senses and rand forward toward the ruined building.

She turned around when she made it there and shouted out, "Come on people! What are you waiting for? We have to get help! Patients are probably buried under here and we have to save as many as we possibly can! Get a move on!"

After the announcement, everyone started moving into action, and replaced their shock and horror with the urge to help anyone who was buried in the rubble. Asuma ran forward to help uncover patients, but stopped when he realized that Kurenai was still standing there.

"Kurenai-chan?" he asked as he walked back to her. She still didn't move from her spot, and only stared at the pile of rubble. The ANBU noticed a few tears that started to make there way down her face. He was about to go get her when she started walking forward, almost like she was a robot. She walked right past him and didn't even offer him a glance. He started to follow her and saw that she was going toward a large chunk of cement.

When they were closer, Asuma saw that someone's hand was sticking out of a hole where a piece of cement met a piece of wood. He watched as Kurenai bent down and placed the newborn she was holding onto the ground next to her. She then turned back and worked on getting the piece of cement out of the way. Asuma caught onto what she was doing and went to help her move it. She finally acknowledged his presence and allowed him to help her.

Between their combined strength, they managed to move the rock like object off to the side a bit. With one last push, it was completely gone. Neither of them really took notice to the fact that they had just completely removed the object that was blocking their path because what was behind it was far more important than the object itself. The sight behind the cement made Kurenai drop her hands to her sides and stare off into space, while silent tears trailed down her face slowly. Asuma almost fell to the ground at the sight, but managed to slowly kneel down instead.

Before them was their sensei, who looked like she was dead or was almost dead. The only thing they could see was the upper portion of her body. Her arm was stretched out making it look like she had tried to fight her way out, but had failed. Her head was in the dirt and her red hair was soaked with her blood. The sight horrified her students to no end. How could this have happened to their sensei?

Kurenai broke out of her trance and looked over to Asuma. He looked back at her and took off his ANBU mask. For the first time in the night, she saw his face. He was usually quite the looker, but now he had tear marks under each eye.

"How could this have happened?" Kurenai asked hoarsely. She wasn't expecting an answer, and didn't receive one. She had to see if her sensei was still alive or not. The black haired woman reached forward and went to check her pulse, but stopped when she heard a slight coughing noise. She saw the red haired woman moving her head, and felt a sort of relief rush though her.

Asuma noticed this and felt the same thing that Kurenai did. They watched as the woman before them slowly raised her head to the point where her chin was resting on the dirt below herself. She cracked open an eye and smiled as best as she could to the two ninja before her, despite the fact that she was in immense pain and had a trail of blood going down her face. The woman grunted for a moment, but then smiled again.

"Kure... Asu...," she managed to say through her pain. They both nodded and gave her a small smile. Kurenai tried to be the optimist in the situation.

"Don't worry sensei, we'll get you out of there!" the red eyed woman announced happily. Her smile was gone instantly when Kushina shook her head ever so slightly.

"No... don't... already... too late." Kurenai froze on those words.

"No! Don't say that sensei! You can't die yet!" cried the black haired medic nin. She instantly gathered green chakra in her hands and started to heal some of Kushina's wounds. Kushina, in turn, used her one free hand to pull her student's hand away from her body.

"Don't... waste... your energy," she said in a quiet voice.

"But–" Kurenai was about to protest when Asuma wrapped an arm around her and put his hand over her mouth.

"Where's... Anko... and Ibiki?" the woman asked.

Asuma answered that question. "They are still out on the battlefield. The both of them are probably helping people get to the hospital." He stared up at the ruins. "Well, that or other places to heal the wounded."

"That's... good." She smiled once more. Wait, battlefield!? Her head shot up at that thought, which caused a jolt of pain to be sent through her body. She grunted, but started talking before either of her students could interrupt. "Naru... to..." She saw the blonde baby off to one of Kurenai's sides. Her student immediately turned and picked up the newborn, before she turned back to the child's mother.

"Don't worry, he's here and in perfect health," Kurenai explained to her sensei.

She used her hand and reached up to stroke son's face gently. "Hello... Naruto... chan." The small child's eyes slowly opened upon his mother's soft touch. Blue eyes stared into green ones, and Kushina smiled even wider. "I'll... miss you." She removed her hand from his head and Kurenai pulled the child back.

"Kure... Asu... please... take care... of him," she asked her two students. They were a little taken aback by the request, but nodded in agreement.

"We will," Asuma answered for them both.

The read haired woman looked up at them, thankful. "One... more... thing," she croaked out.

xxx

Mitarashi Anko and Morino Ibiki had been helping people of all sorts get out of the random messes they had been in throughout the night. From people stuck under trees, all the way to people with severe burns. They tried their best to help everyone. They always made sure that their partner was okay by sticking together. They hadn't split up at all during the night.

"How much farther it is to the hospital?" asked Anko. She was carrying a man that was missing his left arm because it had been crushed by part of a building falling on him. They had considered him lucky to have even survived the accident.

"Not much," her partner, Ibiki, responded. He was carrying another man that he had found under a tree. At worst, the man would lose control of his right leg due to paralysis, but he was no doctor, so he couldn't be sure yet.

After a few more minutes, Anko saw the hospital. "Look, there it...is," she finished in a small voice as they made it to the entrance. When they saw that the building had been almost completely obliterated, they almost dropped the people they were carrying. One of the medic nin ran up to them, and explained what had happened, though there wasn't much to say because what they had seen pretty much explained the whole story.

"...So, you see, we're all trying to get any survivors out. We've gotten a lot of help within the past few minutes," the woman in front of them finished. She then called to a few of the helpers and had them take the injured people that Anko and Ibiki had been carrying. "If you wanted to know, your two teammates are over there," she said pointing to the general area of where Asuma and Kurenai were.

They both thanked her and immediately ran over to their two friends. What were they doing crouched in a corner like that? What was the blonde thing that Kurenai was holding? They both received their answers far sooner than they wanted to.

Asuma and Kurenai looked back to see their other two teammates running up to them. When they arrived behind them, they smiled in greeting bust stopped when they saw who it was underneath all of the rubble.

Anko's eyes became wider than they ever had before in her entire life. "Ku- Kushina-sensei?" She bit her lip and kneeled down behind Asuma. Ibiki followed suit. Though he didn't show any emotion on the outside, he was clearly shaken on the inside. His eyes were a bit wider than normal, but that was the only change in his physical features.

"Ibi... Anko." Kushina smiled. Everyone was there now. "One... more... thing."

They all listened intently to what they knew would be their sensei's last words. Anko looked like she was about to slip up and break down right in front of everyone. That wasn't how she handled things. If she ever cried, it would be where no one could see it. She became very close to breaking that habit.

"Ibi... keep your... teammates... in line. Anko... become... good kunoichi," the red haired woman said to her two students who had just arrived. She then looked at Asuma and Kurenai. "Asu... Kure... help Naruto... grow up to... become good man." With Kushina's last few moments, she turned to her newly born son and spoke for the last time. "I love you... Naruto..."

With those last words, the life faded from Kushina's eyes, and she took her last breath. Her hand and her head collapsed back to the ground and it was clear to all around her that she had passed away.

Anko stared at her sensei, her hands holding her knees tightly. She still bit her lip, and tried her best not to break down in front of everyone, but it was all to no avail. She let a sob escape her mouth before she fell to the ground and started to cry harder than she had in years. Aside from her teammates, Kushina had been one of the only ones to ever accept her when she was rescued from the clutches of Orochimaru. She was always frowned upon for leaving the village and going with such a traitor, but Kushina helped her through all of it. Now, the very person of her thoughts was gone, and would never come back.

Ibiki looked at the dead form of his sensei. He wiped away the few tears he felt burn his eyes with his gloved hand and bowed his head. He was sad, but he was just never known to show it to anyone. When he saw his friend, Anko, fall to the ground, he crawled over to comfort her. If he wasn't in need of help, then he night as well help someone who was. Anko happened to be that person.

Kurenai watched her sensei's red hair, hoping this was some kind of game. Her sensei would just sit up and tell her she was just trying to trick them, and that they should have seen the looks on their faces. The red eyed woman would have given anything for that to have been the case. When her sensei didn't move, she felt tears make their way down her face for yet another time in the same day. She couldn't take it anymore and turned to Asuma and launched herself into his arms.

Asuma willingly embraced her, but was careful not to hurt the baby in her arms. The moment after Kushina passed away, her son started crying and hadn't stopped since. He held Kurenai and rocked her and Naruto back and forth, and did his best to ignore his own tears.

The two calmed down after a few minutes of being comforted by their teammates. Kurenai was the first to pull back, and she looked down at the boy she held in her arms whom had cried himself to sleep. She smiled softly at him. Kurenai looked up at Asuma and he smiled, too. They may not have had their sensei anymore, but they were going to fulfill her last request and raise her child as if he were their own.

The red eyed woman extended her arms and offered the child to Asuma. He reached out and took the sleeping baby and cradled him in his arms for a few moments. When he lifted his head up to give the child back to Kurenai, he was met with a surprise. A big, wet one. Before Asuma knew it, he and Kurenai were lip-locked.

He didn't do anything in response to it. They had been dating for just under a year, so it wasn't too unusual, just very unexpected. Kurenai pulled back from the lack of air she was experiencing after just under a minute. She turned beat red when she looked over and found Ibiki smirking and Anko laughing her ass off at the two. Asuma did the same when he regained his breath, only his blush wasn't as noticeable thanks to his tan colored skin.

"Wow! That's a new record, Kurenai-chan!" Anko cheered when she got over her fit of laughter. "The last one was only 33 seconds. You two just pulled 51 seconds! Great job!" She loved to tease them about the most random things sometimes. "Not in front of the children. Remember, you _are_ holding an infant. He shouldn't be exposed to this stuff for at _least_ another decade." She just continued to make herself laugh more and more. She just couldn't help it.

After a few more minutes of Anko laughing at the expense of Kurenai and Asuma, they all settled down. It had been a great way to lighten the mood. None of them felt too sad anymore thanks to the stunt Kurenai pulled and Anko's response to it.

When they were all in a more serious state of mind, they quickly came to an agreement that they needed to tell the Hokage what had happened as soon as possible. The four teammates helped each other up and Kurenai took Naruto back when Asuma offered. They found another medic nin and told her that Kushina had passed away and where to find her. She thanked them and told them they had everything under control and were free to leave whenever. They all nodded their thanks and were off toward where the Hokage Tower was.

xxx

"Jiraiya," Hiruzen called over to his student when they entered the top floor of the Hokage Tower.

"Yes?" the man responded after he placed the body of his student on the couch that was in the Hokage's office. "What is it, sensei?"

"Could you please retrieve Homura, Koharu, and Danzou for me? I will need them to be at the meet–" the retired Hokage didn't get any farther than that when they heard the door open. "Speak of the devil," the older man finished quietly.

"Do not worry, Hiruzen-sama, Jiraiya-sama. We are already present," the first person who walked in stated. She was Hiruzen's old teammate and good friend, Koharu. The next person to walk in was the retired Hokage's other teammate as a genin, Homura. He joined Koharu in front of the Hokage's desk.

The last person to walk in was a man who was the same age as Hiruzen, Homura, and Koharu, but had a severely different personality. His name was Danzou. The man's face was partially wrapped in some medical tape because his right eye had been rendered useless in the most recent ninja war. He was also the only man who had opposed Sarutobi Hiruzen in becoming the Hokage. He didn't have the same 'foolish' beliefs, as he put it, as his rival did. The scarred man wanted to make everyone fear Konoha by strengthening its military power and building up its economy to the point where all of the other villages would be afraid to even threaten it. He wasn't like his counterpart who wanted to avoid war by making foolish alliances with smaller countries because he had experienced betrayal many times before in his life, and he knew to never trust anyone unless you could completely control them... by force if necessary.

As the old war hawk walked in, his face remained expressionless. He nodded to the retired Hokage as a sign of respect, even though everyone there knew it was a meaningless action from him. He joined his fellow elders by the desk and waited for the retired village leader to tell them what he needed to.

There was a moment of silence where all of the elders that had joined the room looked over to the body of their dead Hokage. They all bowed their head in respect. Even Danzou respected the man more than he did Hiruzen. When they raised their heads again, they turned back to the retired leader.

"Well, I see that you all overheard me, so never mind about the instructions I was going to give you, Jiraiya," Hiruzen said to his student. Jiraiya gave a nod in response. "As for you three, the reason why I have called you here is because we need to decide on a village leader effective immediately. Either I will be reinstated as Hokage, or we will select a new one to take over as Godaime Hokage." When he finished his explanation, he watched as all of the others nodded. Homura spoke up before anyone else had the chance.

"That is acceptable. I presume that you have sent for the other council members?" Hiruzen's old teammate questioned. He received a nod from his retired friend. "Very well, what time did you ask for them to be there?" Hiruzen glanced at the clock on the wall of the office before he responded.

"I told them in twenty minutes back when we were in the cave. About ten have passed since then, so we will be having the meeting in ten minutes." All three of the elders nodded at this and started to file out of the room. Hiruzen, however, did not fail to miss the mischievous glint in one of the elder's eye.

Danzou was not going to miss his chance this time. That was for sure. So the old fool was finally thinking about handing over the mantle of Hokage to someone else? It sure had taken him a long time, but the old war hawk wasn't planning on going anywhere soon. He'd had all the time in the world, and just had to wait long enough. His chance at grabbing the title 'Hokage' was just around the corner. Not even that! It was within the next ten to fifteen minutes! It took all of his will power and determination not to break out into a large grin at that very moment as it would look _very_ suspicious and unfitting on him.

Now all that was left to do was eliminate all of the parties that were against him. That would be as easy as taking candy from a baby (assuming that the baby wasn't like Chouji, in which case someone might lose a couple of fingers in the process). All he had to do was dispatch a few ROOT members and have them occupy the clan heads while the meeting went on, and before they knew it, they would have missed the whole thing and he would be the new Hokage. It was the perfect plan! Nothing could interfere with it.

When the elders parted ways, he went straight toward his office to contact some of his ROOT followers. When no one could see him anymore, he let a large smile spread across his face. It didn't matter how uncharacteristic it looked on him because how he felt on the inside was of much more importance. _You'll regret the day you took the seat of Hokage away from me, Hiruzen. You can count on that_, the man thought evilly as he opened the door to his office.

xxx

Thanks for reading! Don't expect an update too soon. This time for real. I'd like to stay ahead of the story a bit more.

Another thing: About Asuma being in the ANBU and Kurenai being a medic-nin... well, uh, it just sort of played out that way. I believe that they're also a year older than they really are in the series. Anko's also like four years older than she really is. It just works.

And about Kushina being their sensei, let's just say I had some fun coming up with stuff.

Until next time...

Zashire


	3. The Vote

The Samurai Ninja

Chapter 3: The Vote

By: Zashire

The trip to the Hokage office was slightly longer than usual... okay a _lot_ longer than usual. All thanks to one person.

One Yuuhi Kurenai.

Kurenai had been a kind and friendly person in her childhood before entering the Academy to become a ninja. She was fairly popular when she entered, mainly because of her personality and how dependable she was. Everyone could count on her to get things done – on time. It was a thing that her teachers constantly praised her for. They told her that it was a good quality in a ninja. Sometimes ninja had a time limit to get their missions done in, and if they didn't something horrible could happen. They told her that she would be a great kunoichi if she kept that up because people would be able to entrust her with important things that needed to be transported to somewhere within a given timeframe. She was always grateful for the support.

When she graduated, she was still the bright a cheerful person that she had always been. That is, until she went on her first C-class mission. It had been a dual mission. They had teamed up with another group of genin, and she was overjoyed by it because her best friend was on it. At some point on the mission, they ran into a couple of bandits. After all, it was to be expected on a mission of that ranking. Her friend, Emi, and her had been walking at the back of the group to scout for enemies. Their sensei had been doing if for several hours and decided to let a few of their students try it. Oh, how they regretted that choice later.

The two girls had been talking about a sale that they wanted to go to when they returned to the village, when Emi thought she heard something from behind them. She had passed it off as her imagination and had continued to talk with her best friend. While in the middle of telling Kurenai about the price of a cute dress she saw in a store window, she had stopped talking suddenly, lurched forward, and had fallen face first into the dirt below her.

Kurenai would have caught her, but she had been pushed to the ground by her teammate, Asuma, and had watched as a knife passed by overhead. The other team's sensei had turned around quickly enough to catch the flying piece of metal directly out of the air. He had held onto the offending object and had stared off into the bush from where it had come. Several bandits had immediately jumped out and charged the group of ninja.

They had been quickly taken care of by several punches to the back of their heads, which cause them to go unconscious. Kurenai's sensei had walked out from behind them as the bandits fell to the ground. When Kurenai had found out that her best friend had been killed, she had not been able to stop crying for days. The sensei of both groups had apologized multiple times to their genin, but nothing had been enough to stop her from crying.

The mission had been aborted and they had returned to the village to request that the mission either be reassigned or that they received a new teammate. They had received another teammate.

Their new teammate had been a boy that would not stop picking on Kurenai for what he had believed to be her weakness. He had told her multiple times that real ninja didn't cry over the loss of a comrade. They weren't allowed to show emotions, was what he had told her. It only made her cry even more because she hadn't been able to get the memory of her dead friend out of her head.

When the new member had started to pick on her again, the black haired girl's teammate had been near them. He hadn't taken to the other genin's insults very well. Asuma had walked straight up to the offender and had punched him square in the face.

Kurenai had watched as the boy screamed out in pain because he had a broken nose from the punch that Asuma had delivered him. She had known that Asuma had a crush on her, but she hadn't known that he would go as far as to break someone's nose to defend her reputation. She had smiled at him when he turned around and thanked him for what he did. He had rubbed it off as nothing, but he had received a lot of her appreciation that day.

After the death of her best friend, Kurenai had slowly grown cold to everyone around her. Everyone except for Asuma. She hadn't been quite sure why, but her teammate held a special place in her heart. Everyone had picked up on the fact that she was only soft again when he was around, and they thanked him for it. No one liked dealing with the icicle that Kurenai could be when Asuma wasn't around.

That sort of led to where they were at that moment. Except for the fact that Kurenai seemed to have some hidden maternal instincts that no one knew about until that moment. Her teammates had started to head toward the Hokage tower by rooftop, but stopped when they noticed that she wasn't with them. They looked back to see her still standing there with Naruto in her arms.

Anko sighed and went back to find out what was wrong with her friend. She was shortly followed by her two teammates who were also curious about Kurenai's reaction. When they made it back to Kurenai, they had received a one word reply to their unasked question.

"No."

Anko stared at her blankly for a moment. "No what?" she asked in confusion.

"No, we're not taking the rooftops. What if Naruto falls?" she clarified.

The snake woman stared at her in disbelief. "We'll never make it there if we walk!" she complained in an annoyed voice. "Besides, if you're so worried that he'll fall, why don't you let me, Asuma-kun, or Ibiki-kun take him?"

The purple haired woman received no response and watched as Kurenai passed her and wandered off into the village. She turned to her remaining two teammates who both shared an equal look of disbelief. She gave a sigh.

"Well, someone should go with her," Anko suggested as she watched the retreating form of her friend. Ibiki and Asuma glanced at each other before they gave a stiff nod to their female comrade. She nodded and was about to tell them that she wasn't going, but they beat her to it. Just as she opened her mouth, they took off and were on the roof of a clothing store in less than half a second and were jumping away as quickly as they could, partially to get to the Hokage Tower faster, and partially to avoid Anko's wrath if she caught up with them.

What they left behind was a fuming Anko. She glared daggers at her supposed 'teammates' backs, and was about to scream at them to get their sorry asses back there pronto, but decided against it since it happened to be the middle of the night, and she didn't want to cause a scene after what had just happened. That was the _last_ thing the villagers needed... someone screaming their head off at their friends almost immediately after one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Konoha had just happened.

She sighed again and decided to catch up with her friend to make sure she would be okay getting to the Hokage tower in the middle of the night. _Am I getting soft?_ was her last thought before she left the site just outside the ruined hospital to catch up with a certain red eyed woman.

xxx

"I hope we don't get in too much trouble for this," Asuma sighed as he joined his companion on the rooftops of the partially ruined city. A mad Anko was _not_ a fun Anko... well, that depended on whose perspective it was. In their case, no, it would not be fun. In her case, however, it was a _totally_ different story. After all, she _was_ an apprentice in the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Unit, which did not spell out anything good for any poor soul who managed to piss the crazy woman off.

"All we can do is hope, my friend," Ibiki stated. 'Hope' being the key word in that sentence. Both of them knew that 'hope' and 'Anko' just didn't go together. They were pretty much out of luck at that point. "All we can do is hope."

xxx

When Anko and Kurenai arrived at the Hokage tower, they completely passed up Asuma and Ibiki who were waiting by the door, and wandered in without even a passing glance. The two men had watched their two female teammates, when they came within viewing distance, playing with Naruto, who was still in Kurenai's arms. They both seemed to have a soft spot for the child, which made the other two men look a bit skeptical.

Kurenai, for starters, had _never_ been one to show any feelings of affection toward anyone except for Asuma, which had earned her the title of 'Ice Queen,' pretty much thanks to her cold attitude toward others. Now that she was showing a kind side toward Naruto had them thinking she might have lost her touch, but they found it understandable seeing that she had already shown affectionate signs toward Asuma.

That was _nothing_ compared to what they thought when they saw _Anko_ showing a soft side – one they never thought could have possibly existed in her. She was known for being a sadistic individual that you would never want to have as an interrogator. Like Kurenai, she had a somewhat icy attitude toward people she disliked. Yes, she could be called 'playful'... in some sick, twisted way, but she had never been _this_ kind of playful before.

They both watched as the women passed them, still fondling over how cute Naruto was. When they saw the door fully close behind the two women, they gave each other high fives. They were in the clear! Nobody would be losing their life today!

Their thoughts came to an abrupt halt when Anko reopened the door and threatened in a sickly sweet voice, "How 'bout we finish talking about how you left me at the hospital after this meeting, 'kay?"

She shut the door again, leaving the two men to sulk at their misfortune. Just when they thought they had managed to slip by, Anko struck them down again. They sighed before they figured that it would be best not to make their two teammates wait any longer, and entered the building like men ready for battle.

xxx

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that night. He hadn't missed the evil glint in Danzou's eyes at all. He knew exactly what it was about. Ever since he took over the position of Hokage, Danzou had always been looking for any way possible to remove the older man from office. It looked like he had finally found it. Hiruzen looked up at his student, who was staring out the window, obviously trying to think the whole problem through.

"We'll just have to see how this plays out. There's not much we can do now," the retired Hokage said as he stared down at his desk. Jiraiya, on the other hand, almost flipped when he heard that come from his sensei's mouth.

"What are you talking about!? We can't do that! We already know Danzou is going to try to pull something, and we can't let him slip past us. Besides, you're not one to give up so easily. What are you planning?" Jiraiya asked, beginning to think that his sensei had something up his sleeve.

"We've already sent ninja to go get the clan heads, and have finalized the time at which the meeting will begin. We can't change that." Hiruzen's student slowly nodded in understanding. "We know that Danzou is planning to do something to change the vote on who is Hokage. It is quite obvious that he will propose that he become the Godaime Hokage, correct?" Another nod. "So, to do that, he will need to remove just enough of the clan representatives that support me."

Jiraiya's eyes became wide at the statement as realization hit him. "So you mean when the vote comes to whether naming a new Hokage or reinstating you, he'll have all of the clans that want a new Hokage there, but not as many that want to keep you in office. Then, when they vote to have a new Hokage, it wouldn't matter as long as he was the only one proposed, because then even those who are against him would have to vote for him because he is the only candidate!? Stupid old fart!"

Hiruzen hid a smirk at the name Jiraiya gave Danzou, but managed a nod in response. "That is correct."

"So what do we do?" the Gama Sennin asked in a slightly raised voice. He was getting slightly annoyed at how long his sensei was dragging the matter out.

Hiruzen glanced up at his student. "That what I was getting to. What I propose we do is..."

xxx

Kurenai and Anko made their way up to the Hokage's office, followed by their two teammates, Ibiki and Asuma. It was fairly dark in some parts of the hallways thanks to the Kyuubi attack putting out the electricity. That factor didn't hinder their navigation skills too much since they were ninja and were trained to take on missions at night when it was pitch black and there was _no_ lighting whatsoever. It didn't make it any less annoying, however.

It had been very easy to accidentally trip on something someone had dropped previously thanks to the lack of moving. At least if they were in a forest, they could _hear_ stuff moving. Sadly, they were not, and pulled off tripping on many pencils and pins. It annoyed them to no end.

They finally made it to the office door, all in one piece, and knocked a few times. Asuma was about to comment on how slow his father was when they heard an 'enter' from the other side. That shut the ANBU up nicely. Anko opened the door and walked in, followed by the rest of her teammates. They all winced upon seeing the Yondaime's body spread across the couch.

"Asuma? Kurenai? I thought you were ordered to help out at the hospital," Hiruzen asked in confusion. He finally took notice of Ibiki and Anko. "I thought you two were supposed to be helping out in the village. What's going on?"

Anko beat all of her teammates, and was the first to speak up. "Um, well, it's a long story."

"I have a few moments. Would you care to give me a condensed version, as I would like to know why some of our top ninja seem to be playing 'hookey' when our village has just suffered a major attack by one of the most feared demons of all time," the man responded. He glanced at each of the four ninja before him, and wondered what was going on.

Anko looked at all of her teammates and sighed. They had all been deeply hurt by the loss of their sensei, and she decided to take over the talking part since she assumed that they wouldn't want to talk about what had just happened. "Well, the shortest version I have is this: When Ibiki-kun and I were on our way to the hospital with some injured civilians, we saw Kurenai-chan and Asuma-kun sitting by a wall at the ruined hospital–"

She was cut off went Hiruzen interrupted her. "Ruined hospital?"

"Yes, the Kyuubi landed on it before his body went up in flames, which caused the building to partially collapse," Asuma broke in, answering for Anko. The retired Hokage paled upon receiving the information. He had a small guess at where the conversation was going.

"Please, continue," he requested to Anko. She gave a nod.

"Yes, so anyway, we went over to Kurenai-chan and Asuma-kun to see what they were doing, and that's when we saw–" Anko choked on her own words for a second.

Ibiki saw her distress and continued for her. "Kushina-sensei." Hiruzen's eyes widened ever so slightly. Jiraiya bit his lip. "The entire lower portion of her body had been crushed by the building. She had lost a lot of blood and knew that she was dying. After a few minutes of us getting their, she–" He looked at the floor of the office with a sad expression on his face. Hiruzen and Jiraiya knew what was coming next and almost didn't listen because of how much they didn't want to hear the man in front of them say those words. "Passed away."

Hiruzen looked down at his desk once again. Who would raise Naruto now? He was about to tell his student that he would talk to him later about the matter when he realized that Jiraiya was looking out the window. Now was not the time to discuss that matter. It would be best to let him overcome his grief first. He was about to thank the four ninja for the information when Kurenai cut him off.

"She did, however, tell us an important thing," the red eyed woman stated. Hiruzen's head snapped up. He was all ears for this. The retired Hokage could tell that Jiraiya was listening closely, too. "Kushina-sensei told Asuma and I to take care of her son once she was gone."

Jiraiya turned back to the group and gave a nod to his sensei. They would at least be a good influence to the child as he grew up. The two would also provide Naruto with parental figures, which would do the boy good. He gave a small smile as he looked at the people who would raise who he considered his 'grandson.' Maybe things would turn out alright. He glanced over to the body of his student and thought, _Don't worry Minato, yours and Kushina's son is in good hands_.

Hiruzen gave a soft smile, despite the sadness he was feeling toward the loss of Kushina. "Very well then. We will discuss the adoption of Naruto after the meeting I will be having with the council momentarily." All of the ninja before him perked up at the mention of a meeting.

"What's this meeting for?" Asuma asked his father, slightly suspicious.

Hiruzen sighed. "It's about who will become the next Hokage." The four ninjas' eyes grew wide.

"But, shouldn't you be Hokage again, Sarutobi-sama? Why do you need to have a vote?" Anko asked out of confusion.

"We must have a vote; otherwise it will not bode well with the council, which brings me to the next issue. Since you are now here, I must say that I will require some of your assistance in this meeting..."

xxx

"Thank you all for coming here on such short notice," Hiruzen said to the clan heads and elders before him. They had all recently gathered in the council meeting room to discuss the topic of who would be the next Hokage. He glanced around the room, and saw several empty seats... just as predicted. "I see that not everyone was able to make it, but we do have enough to hold a meeting." Everyone in the room nodded. "Then let us begin."

Toward the end of the table opposite Hiruzen, a man named Danzou sat, pondering over what had happened. When he had walked into the room, only minutes prior, he'd been smiling somewhat largely. The smirk quickly fell off his face when he looked around at the clan heads that were present. All of the ones that he had planned to be there were present, but there were a few extra... ones that he was almost positive would vote in his old rival's favor. He had started panicking; trying his best to come up with something that would help him win the vote for a new Hokage, but nothing came to mind. His eyes swept over the table again until they made it to one of the extras. Yes, that would work! A plan quickly formulated in his brain and he put it away for later. It would work... very nicely.

"Today, we are here to discuss who should be the village leader. Recently, the Yondaime Hokage sacrificed himself in battle to save our village. Since he is no longer Hokage, we need to find a replacement," the older man explained from the head of the table. All of the members nodded silently in response. "We are left with two options. Either we find a new person to take the title of Godaime Hokage, or I come out of retirement and reinstate myself as the Sandaime Hokage. That is what we will be voting on." As he finished, everyone in the room nodded again.

"This will be a majority vote, and it will be starting now. All for those in favor of naming a new Hokage." Hiruzen watched as the clans of Uchiha, Yamanaka, Nara, Akimichi, and Danzou's hands went up. Truth be told, the Ino-Shika-Chou team didn't have anything against the retired Hokage, they just agreed on the fact that he was a little to old to lead the village. They believed that the village needed a new, younger Hokage. None of them knew who, but just something new.

"Very well, and those in favor of reinstating me, Sarutobi Hiruzen, as Hokage," Hiruzen continued after counting the hands. He then watched as the Hyuuga, Mitarashi, and Morino clans raised all of their hands. His teammates also raised their hands shortly after. The older man gave a sigh before he raised his own. He was about to announce that he would come out of retirement, but was interrupted by one of the council members.

"Before you conclude the vote, Sarutobi-dono, I believe you should check the members of the council once more. You will find that not one, but _two_ of the members should not be here. Mitarashi Anko-san and Morino Ibiki-san are not clan heads, and therefore have no right to be here," Danzou concluded with an internal smirk. His rival would have no choice but to change the vote now. He focused back on the man at the head of the table and listened intently to his response.

"Before this day, you would be right, Danzou-dono," Hiruzen started. The old war hawk flinched at the mention of 'before that day.' What was the old fool getting at? "But seeing as the former clan heads, Mitarashi Yuki-san and Morino Fuji-san, are no longer with us, these two are now the heads of their clans." Everyone's eyes widened at that statement. None of them had known that the clan heads had been killed in battle. Some of them were slightly hurt because they had been good friends with them, and now they were gone.

Danzou stared at his rival. "Fine, the seats may be hereditary, but that still does not give them the right to be here. They are required to be at least eighteen years old to fully take on the position of clan head." With that, he knew he had it won. There was no way the old fool could possibly get around this one.

The old war hawk would soon realize that the retired Hokage wasn't called 'The Professor' for nothing.

Hiruzen was about to start when all of them heard a low noise. It sounded like something was crying. Less than three seconds after it started, it ended. Everyone stared at each other and looked at the Hokage expectantly. Hiruzen quickly waved it off and continued to respond to Danzou's statement.

"Actually it does. Three years ago, we voted that clan head would be decided by ninja rank rather than age. To be clan head, the person must be at least at the rank of Chuunin or higher. It was decided to be switched because of the death of Hatake Sakumo, remember? Hatake Kakashi was made clan head since he was the only living member of the clan and was Jounin at the time. Mitarashi-san and Morino-san are both at the rank of Jounin and are the next in line to be clan heads, making them eligible to take their clan's seat at this table," Hiruzen explained.

Danzou was racking his brain, but couldn't come up with any kind of rebuttal. He sighed and felt like tearing apart his old rival, but he couldn't do that. He had a reputation to maintain. He looked back up at Hiruzen and gave a stiff nod, admitting 'defeat.' That was the next thing on his list of things to do – change the voting system to be a two third's vote rather than majority rules.

The man at the front of the table nodded back. "Then, by a vote of six to five, I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, will be reinstating myself as the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure." Everyone nodded. Shikaku offered a lazy smile, even though he didn't vote for the man, while his teammates joined the others in their nods. The Sandaime Hokage then said in an authoritative tone, "My first decree as Hokage will be that anyone who knows about the Kyuubi being sealed within Naruto will not be allowed to speak about it to anyone, except for Naruto himself when he gets older and the standing Hokage. Violators of this law will by punished by death." He was expecting some of the council members to be surprised by the news of what had happened to the Kyuubi. Instead, he had been surprised because none of them had reacted badly. They all just gave a nod in agreement. Perhaps more people knew about it than he thought. His theory was proven true when the Nara clan head spoke up.

"Don't be so surprised, Hokage-sama. It wasn't that hard to figure out. When you see a red cloud floating above the entire village and headed toward a certain place, you know something's up. You have only confirmed our suspicions," Shikaku finished off lazily. "What I wonder is what you plan to tell the ninja that saw the cloud but do not know what happened."

Hiruzen sighed before he responded. "I was planning to tell them the truth, but now that I think about it, we would be risking a spy figuring out the information and telling it to an enemy. Do you think it would be best to let the villagers let their minds wander?" he asked to the council as a whole.

Koharu spoke up before anyone else could. "Honestly, yes, I believe that we should let their minds wander. You must remember that no one aside from us and a few medic nin and ANBU know which child was in the cave that night. It won't be a problem because they wouldn't know who it was and nothing they could imagine would be anything compared to what really happened. Do not worry, Hokage-dono, nothing bad will happen."

Hiruzen gave his old teammate a small smile. He could always count on her to give him some helpful advice. He gave a quick nod. "Agreed. I will notify the medic nin and ANBU who were at the cave of this new law. Another thing that I would like to add is that no one should reveal Naruto's true heritage outside of this room. If anyone else finds out, it could mean the boy's life." Everyone nodded in understanding. He would have to lie to the villagers that Kushina and her child had died in battle, but it would all be worth it in the end. It would keep Naruto safe from any enemies of his father. He would also have parents, so it wouldn't really matter in the villager's eyes. "Meeting adjourned."

Everyone quickly filed out to get back to their homes to help their families, all except for Anko, Ibiki, and the Hokage who had recently come out of retirement. As soon as the last person closed the door behind themselves, they all broke out into grins and watched as Anko jumped in the air and cheered.

"You can come out now," Hiruzen spoke to a wall. To anyone else other than the three in the room, it would have looked like the leader that the council had just voted for was going crazy. Thankfully, everyone in the room knew exactly what was going on.

"Sorry about Naruto suddenly crying," Kurenai apologized as Jiraiya unveiled them from the invisibility jutsu that they had been hidden under during the duration of the meeting.

"Yeah, I kinda bumped into Kurenai-chan when I was shifting positions, which caused Naruto to wake up," Asuma said in a guilty voice. Kurenai bopped him on the head.

"It was your fault that we were almost given away!" the red eyed woman shouted at her boyfriend.

"Calm down, everyone," Hiruzen spoke up. "It's quite alright. No harm was done. I just received a few strange looks, but other than that, it was fine." Kurenai nodded, but still glared at her boyfriend out of the corners of her eyes. Asuma gave a sigh. "What matters most is that Danzou did not become the next Hokage. But still, I cannot help but wonder what he did with the clan heads..." He trailed off after a moment. He would be sure to send an ANBU squad out later to see what had happened. "Other than that, excellent job, Anko, Ibiki. You two played your parts very nicely back there."

The Hokage sent them a warm smile, and they returned it as well, though Ibiki's was a bit stiffer. They both thanked him as well. The both of them knew that they would have to take on the full responsibilities of clan head now since they had pulled that little stunt, and they were willing to do it to help their old village leader.

Hiruzen gave a nod. "On a lighter note, I believe that we discussed earlier a matter about Naruto's new parents. Shall we return to my office to fill out the paperwork?" the older man asked with a grin on his face. Kurenai and Asuma both flushed in embarrassment because they had almost forgotten about that. They had all been so preoccupied with watching the meeting that the thought had completely slipped through their minds. Everyone nodded and they all began to file out of the room.

As they walked down the hallway, Jiraiya looked down at the scroll in his pouch... the scroll that contained the body of his former student. Before they had left the Hokage's office to go to the meeting, they had all agreed that it would be best to seal Minato's body away into a scroll so they could give it a proper burial later. They all knew it was somewhat disrespectful to treat his body like that, but they knew it had to be done. None of them wanted to risk someone breaking into the tower in the middle of a crisis and taking away their most famous leader's body.

They all knew that along with the name that the Yondaime carried, he also held a large bounty on his head. If someone had robbed the village of his body, it would not only bring shame to the place, but it would also be a large loss to the village as a whole. The deceased Hokage had been the strongest ninja that the village had ever produced in its entire history. He had earned himself many titles that had caused fear for any countries plotting against them. Just saying his name in some other lands could strike fear in the hearts of many.

Along with his title, he was also known to be a loving and caring man. When he had taken office, he had vowed to protect the village of Konoha and all of its members with his very life. If they had lost his body, it would not only show the other countries that they could even prevent outsiders from defiling their greatest hero's dead body, but it would bring sadness to the village because they couldn't at least give the man a proper burial.

So, they resorted to their last option. Sealing it away for later. It was disrespectful, yes, but it would at least keep his body safe. They had all been sure that no one would mind as long as they gave their hero a proper goodbye at his funeral.

The group of ninja soon made it to the Hokage's office. Asuma was stuck with door duty because no one would let him through as they entered. He sighed as he finally made it in. That just went to show how much respect the ANBU received in Konoha. Absolutely nothing. Well, at least for him while he was with his friends. Everyone else was treated fairly, but not him. He dragged his feet, clearly still moping, as he walked over to a chair in front of his father's desk and plopped down in it. Kurenai and Hiruzen were already seated, while everyone else was over on the few couches that were in the room.

The reinstated Hokage mentally sighed at his son's unruly entrance. _Well, it's quite obvious who Naruto _won't_ be picking up his manners from_, he thought. He could just picture it like that in the future... a mini version of Asuma, only with a different appearance. That was the _last_ thing they all needed around the place.

He quickly cleared his mind and ran through his desk to find the necessary papers for such a case. "Ah, here they are." Hiruzen stated once he found them. "I honestly don't know why I had them in here. Usually the orphanage is responsible for these kinds of things, but seeing as I _am_ Hokage, I'm sure I will be able to bypass those protocols, especially since Naruto's never been to an orphanage and hopefully never will be." Kurenai and Asuma nodded at this. "Well then, we just need to fill this out."

The man immediately began filling in blanks spots on the document until he came to a certain point. "Has this child even had a birth certificate filled out yet?" the Hokage asked as he looked up. The two shrugged and glanced at each other.

"I'm sure Kushina-sensei had one filled out, but seeing as the hospital has been partially destroyed, there is no telling where it could be right now," Kurenai answered, trying to think it through as much as possible.

Hiruzen mentally groaned. "Very well then. I'm just going to fill this out as much as I can. I'll need you two to run it by the hospital once everything is back to normal to get the rest." Both of the ninja before him nodded. The Hokage then signed his name in several sections, indicating that the village leader had approved of the document and its actions. He turned the documents around to make them face toward Asuma and Kurenai.

"Please sign here," Hiruzen said while pointing to the bottom of the first page. He handed them a small brush and a bottle of ink so they could fill the document out. They both nodded and completed the task quickly before they turned it back to the Hokage. Hiruzen nodded, satisfied. "I believe that is all that can be done for now. I will keep these safe until tomorrow morning." Both nodded. Hiruzen gave a sigh and spoke his next thought. "Since you are already living together in the same apartment, I would like to relocate you."

The two ninja before him perked up at the same time upon hearing that. "To where?" Asuma asked out of curiosity.

"I'm glad you asked. I would like for you to both move into one of the houses in the Sarutobi compound," Hiruzen stated. He then cut them off before they could say anything. "I have several reasons for requesting this. One being that I believe it would be safer for Naruto, at least until everything calms down a bit. I don't know if anyone might be suspicious of what happened tonight. My second reason is that it would be easier for Naruto to grow up in a clan compound than in a one bedroom apartment."

Both of the ninja nodded at his logic. It made sense. "Thank you for the offer Hokage-sama, we'll move in," Kurenai said formally with a nod. Hiruzen quickly shook it off and replied.

"No need for formalities, Kurenai. You can just call me Hiruzen."

Kurenai nodded. "Thank you then, Hiruzen-sama." The Hokage and his son sighed. They were getting nowhere with this. He decided to move on to avoid any headaches.

"Now that everything's settled, I will say one last thing," Hiruzen began. "Naruto will now be known as 'Sarutobi Naruto.' That will stay in effect until he become older. When he is mature enough to handle the information about his heritage, he will have the option to take back the Namikaze name and rebuild his clan since he is the sole survivor now that Minato and Kushina are not with us anymore." The two nodded. It would be sad to see the child one day switch his name, but they both knew that it would be for the benefit of the almost extinct clan.

Hiruzen gave a quick nod. He then raised his voice to let the others know that he was talking to them too. "Now then, seeing as that's over with, I believe it's time everyone returned to their homes to get some rest. A lot has happened tonight, and you all deserve a good night's, well, rest of the night's sleep."

Before anyone could agree, Anko perked up. "But, Hokage-sama, what about the rest of the injured villagers and ninja? Can we at least spend another hour or so helping the–" She cut herself off with a long yawn. Hiruzen shook his head in response.

"No, Anko. I do not mean to sound offensive, but do you really believe that you'll be able to help anyone if you're falling asleep on the job?" the older man asked. She gave another yawn and sleepily shook her head. Hiruzen gave a nod. "Very well then. Please return to your homes and get some sleep. We will start cleaning up the village tomorrow morning. There are plenty of ninja out there who are far more wide awake than you two are, and they can handle getting people to the hospital." They all agreed and started to file out the door. The Hokage stopped Kurenai and Asuma. "As for you two, please go to the Sarutobi clan compound and tell one of the maids that I told you to spend the night. She will give you a room to stay in, and I'm sure that she will be able to find a crib for Naruto."

"But what about the stuff that we have in the apartment?" Asuma asked. Some of his most expensive items had been kept in their small home, and he wasn't willing to give it up like that.

Hiruzen sighed. "We can work that out in the morning. For now, just get some sleep. I will be returning later after I take care of some unfinished business. I assume people will be coming here throughout the night, and I will have to respond. Don't expect me to be back before you go to sleep, okay?" The two nodded and left the room.

The Hokage groaned when he heard the door close because he then realized that he was the last one in the room because his student Jiraiya had left while he had been talking to his son and Kurenai. That was only part of the reason for his distress. The other part was because he had no clue how much paperwork the event that had occurred that evening would drag in. All he knew was that it would be no small amount.

Hiruzen sighed once again and stood up from his chair. He figured that he should get a move on and decided to see how the hospital had been holding up before anyone started to come to the Hokage tower for help. He had to make sure that his villagers were safe. The last thought that he had on his mind before leaving his office was, _This is going to be one _long_ night._

xxx

A/N: I wasn't planning to upload this chapter until Saturday or Sunday, but I changed my mind. Hope you liked it!

Zashire


	4. An Unwelcome Visitor

The Samurai Ninja

Chapter 4: An Unwelcome Visitor

By: Zashire

The next morning came by all too soon for many of the ninja in Konoha. When the clocks hit three in the morning, almost everyone had returned home to get some sleep. Others stayed out for the rest of the night and returned home several hours later when they were positive that everyone in the village was safe. The hospital had become overcrowded very easily, and some people had to be moved to various parts of the village where medic nin could set up their equipment to treat everyone.

Sadly, some people weren't as fortunate. Because of the Kyuubi attack on the village, many of the ninja that Konoha had died defending their home from the evil being. Some died because the Kyuubi had killed them, while others died because of their injuries. Whenever the medic nin made it to a scene where someone had died from their injuries, they couldn't help but shed a few tears and mentally scream at themselves. They had been too slow to save someone's life. Everyone hated it when that happened because it was hard not to blame themselves for the person's death. It was heartbreaking to see it happen.

Many other people tried to focus on the positive, and how they had managed to save at least half of the people who had been severely injured in the attack. Every life counted. Even though they lost many ninja and civilians, they still managed to save a lot more than they lost. That was what helped them keep their heads up through the hard night, and was what made them look forward to a brighter tomorrow.

While many of the ninja spent countless hours awake, working on saving lives and helping the village, several others spent that time catching up on sleep because of how tired they had been from the day before. They had wanted to help the village, they really did... but they knew that they wouldn't be of any use if they fell asleep in the middle of helping someone to the hospital. That, and the loss of their sensei had hit them pretty hard.

Two of the aforementioned people were currently sleeping in a room that was part of the Sarutobi clan compound. One black haired, red eyed woman, and one black haired, brown eyed man. They had both immediately fallen asleep once they had made it to the room, and hadn't even bothered to change their clothes. Only one of them had made it through the night without waking up once. The other person hadn't been as fortunate.

She'd had to wake up multiple times during the night to tend to the needs of a certain blonde haired, blue eyed baby in the other room. The maid had been kind enough to put them in a room next to where the newborn would be staying in. They had thought that was a good idea. Oh, how one of them had regretted it. She soon found out that the baby could just not be quiet for more than an hour.

That's how her night had gone. Every hour on the hour it was go to Naruto's room to feed him or rock him back to sleep, and then go back to bed before the next hour came by. Finally, when the sun was only a few hours away from coming up, she had made it back to sleep for more than an hour. Naruto had either finally fallen asleep for a longer period of time, or a maid had helped calm him down. Whichever one it was, she honestly couldn't care as long as she got her sleep.

The next time the red eyed woman woke up, she saw that the sun was just peeking over the horizon. She glanced at the clock in the room and saw that more than two hours had passed since Naruto had called for her. The woman started to get a little worried, and decided to check on the baby. It was a little unnerving not having the child call out for anyone within those two hours.

She quickly got out of bed and made her way over to the door that had connected the two rooms together. When she opened it and walked in, she found something that made her turn around and run back to the bed as fast as she could. For what was in the room, was an empty crib and a broken window.

The dark haired woman ran back into her room and shook Asuma as hard as she could mange. Her boyfriend's eyes snapped open instantly to see her shaking him. He quickly sat up and asked what was wrong and what caused her to wake him up at such an hour. He could see the panic in her eyes, and that couldn't mean anything good.

"It's Naruto! I went to check on him and he wasn't there!" the woman said as fast as she could. Asuma sighed. She looked at him in confusion.

"Did it ever occur to you that a maid might have taken him to the kitchen to feed him, Kurenai-chan?" he asked her in an obvious tone. Kurenai shook her head quickly.

"No! It's not that! There's a broken window in his room! I know he's been kidnapped!" she shouted in response before Asuma could get anything out.

The man's eyes became wide. "Tell the maid the situation and that we'll be gone for a while. Then, meet me at the Hokage tower. I'm going to go inform dad about this." She grunted in response. As he was making a hand sign for Shunshin no Jutsu, she spoke up.

"Like hell I'm doing the dirty work." He looked at her in surprise and watched as she grabbed his arm, and before he could do anything, he found the both of them in the Hokage's office. He gave a sigh. Stubborn Kurenai.

They both looked up to see the Hokage staring down at them with a questioning look on his face. The two ninja brushed themselves off and nodded to the Hokage as they stood up. The Hokage nodded back, but still had a 'What the hell is going on?' look on his face.

Asuma ran up to the desk. "To the point, Naruto's been kidnapped." The Hokage stared at them for several seconds. Who in Konoha would want to kidnap Naruto? Almost everyone had no reason to because they didn't know about the Kyuubi being sealed within him. So, who would want to pull that off? The old Hokage honestly had no clue.

Hiruzen stood up and walked around his desk. "Asuma, tell my secretary to have a bird sent out to summon all of the Jounin and ANBU ninja in the village. I don't know who kidnapped Naruto, but I also don't know where they are taking him. For all we know, he could be halfway out of the country right now!" Asuma nodded and used Shunshin to get downstairs because it was a lot faster than taking the stairs. Hiruzen turned to Kurenai. "I honestly do not know what to tell you. Unless you have a trail or something to follow, I am afraid that you will have to wait until the other ninja get here so they can help you."

The red eyed woman nodded sadly. If there was one thing that Kurenai hated the most, it was not being useful. She didn't experience it too often since she could usually come up with something to do on the spot, but this wasn't one of those cases. What she could do now for her sensei's son was only next to nothing. She sighed and stared out the window, waiting for the ninja assembly.

That was... until she thought of an idea. She pivoted on one foot to face Hiruzen. The older man looked up at her and tilted his head sideways in a questioning manner.

"Hiruzen-sama," she began. He sighed. Kurenai was a far too polite woman in some cases, and he was surprised how Asuma hadn't picked up anything from her yet. He ignored the thought and focused once again on the red eyed woman. He gave a short nod, and she took that as a signal to continue. "Who knows about the Kyuubi true location right now?"

He responded immediately. "The council and the people who were at the cave. That is all." She looked down for a minute while she thought about the list of people. That narrowed down who could have kidnapped the baby by a lot. She turned her head back up to the man.

"The only people who I can think of who might have done this are several on the council and some of the ANBU in the cave that night. I _know_ none of the medic nin did it. You saw how all of us reacted to the beast being sealed within Naruto," she crossed a few off the list with that statement. Hiruzen nodded. He hadn't even thought of trying to accuse any of the medic nin of doing it because they all had good hearts and had his total trust. Seeing their reactions at the cave had made him completely cross them off the list.

That only left the council. The two main people that he could think of that could possibly even want to do it were Danzou and the Uchiha clan. None of the others seemed to even be inclined to do anything for the child, whether it be help or hurt him, at least until they managed to fix their own clans. He spoke his thoughts to Kurenai and she couldn't agree more with him.

"I just honestly don't see why the Uchiha clan would _want_ to kidnap Naruto. It doesn't make any sense," Kurenai thought out loud. Hiruzen nodded. "It's hard to understand why Danzou would want to, too. I mean, yes, you've told us that he is trying to rule Konoha to make it more military themed, but why would that make him want to take a defenseless child?" she asked, in slight confusion.

Hiruzen sighed. "I honestly don't know why either of them would want to do any of this, but I would still count them as our greatest suspects." Kurenai sighed, but gave a nod. She was about to speak up when she saw Asuma go running past the window outside. She looked at Hiruzen.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go. Asuma just took off that way." He would have told her to wait, but before he could even glance back at her, she had completely disappeared. Now where did she go? She said Asuma had disobeyed his orders meaning that the ninja wouldn't be there. Damn Asuma. He walked over to the door and was about to open it when it was opened from the other side by the last person he had expected to see then.

xxx

It took Kurenai a few minutes to get within a good range of Asuma. She was jumping as fast as she could, but with each jump she took, it seemed like he got farther and farther away. Maybe he was onto a lead! Maybe he knew where Naruto was! She was going to call out to him, but decided to let him focus on where he was going so he could get the little blonde baby back. She would help him if he needed it, but other than that, she would stay behind him.

xxx

Hiruzen's mouth dropped open when someone opened the door from the other side and walked in. He had not expected to see that person after what had happened with Kurenai only minutes prior. The person walked up to the Hokage quickly.

"The ninja have been assembled and are outside waiting for you to give them orders, dad." The mysterious person turned out to be Asuma. He looked at his father who was still somewhat startled. "Hey, are you alright?"

Hiruzen snapped himself out of it. "Yes, I am fine, but that's not important right now. What_ is _important is that Kurenai just left saying that she saw you out the window a few minutes ago, and now you are here," the Hokage explained to his son. Asuma's eyes widened slightly, but quickly went back to normal. The Hokage put two and two together. "That means someone is disguising themselves as you, and that they have Naruto."

"Which way did she go?" the ANBU asked while getting ready to head out at a moment's notice. Hiruzen responded by pointing in the general direction. One that would quickly lead to the forest. Asuma nodded. "Tell the ninja that the kidnapper looks like me, and to make sure it's not me before they strike the person down. Their way of telling that will be if I attack them back." The Hokage nodded at his son's logic and watched as Asuma disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Hiruzen used Shunshin like his son just had to get to the roof because he knew it would be a lot faster than climbing the stairs, and now, every second they had counted. He still couldn't believe how lucky they had been that Naruto was still in the village. The old man almost grinned. As long as Konoha's ninja were quick enough, they would make it and save Naruto on time.

When he arrived at the roof, he saw no less than one hundred ninja all prepared and ready to go. He was slightly surprised by the sheer number of people that had made it out of the attack only hours prior unscathed, but quickly shot that thought down. His main concern now was getting his grandson back in one piece. He almost chuckled at how he had thought of the boy as his grandson already when the adoption papers hadn't been totally filled out yet. It was going to be some adventure... that was, as long as they made sure the child was rescued.

All of the ninja turned to see the Sandaime Hokage appear in a swirl of leaves. Asuma had explained to several of the ANBU that the Sandaime had been reinstated, while others had heard from friends at some random points throughout the night. They all nodded their respect and awaited further instruction.

Hiruzen nodded back. "Thank you all for coming here this morning on an emergency call. We need to move as quickly as possible for this to succeed. To make a long story short, you are all being sent on a search and rescue mission." Some of the ninja gave him questioning looks. "You are being sent to find a small blonde haired, blue eyed child by the name of Sarutobi Naruto. He is my grandson and from what we can gather, he was kidnapped less than half an hour ago. He is either in the village or on some outskirt right now, and his kidnapper is disguised as Sarutobi Asuma. Please take to your usually pairs or groups and fan out into your patrolling sectors. We need to bring this child back, alive and well. Find him!"

The Hokage dismissed all of the ninja with a wave of his hand, and watched as all but two left and took to the roofs. He was about to yell at the two that had stayed behind when he saw them walking up to him. Hiruzen gave them a questioning look that asked why they had disobeyed his direct orders. When they reached him, one of the two spoke up.

"We are sorry for not leaving immediately, Hokage-sama, but we would like to know why you have called our top ninja together to search for one infant. What is so important about him that requires so much attention?" he asked. The man had apparently thought this through while the Hokage had been talking. The Hokage grunted.

"Did you not hear? He is my grandson. He is also the heir to the Sarutobi clan." The Hokage made a lie up on the spot. He would do anything to get those two to get moving. They looked at each other, and the second one shook his head.

"Why did you not send a few groups of ANBU out then? What requires the attention of both Jounin _and_ ANBU?" They both knew something was up, and they wanted answers. The two saw the Hokage's distress and answered. "You may not tell us now, but many of the others are curious as to why you did this, too. They will also come to you for an explanation. Come on, let's go, Kimiko," he addressed his partner at the end. They both nodded to their Hokage and left.

Hiruzen was about as pissed as any man like him could get. Just after he had gone and made the law with the council to not tell anyone about the Kyuubi's sealing, he'd almost done it himself, even though he was the one exception. He could still possibly have to do it, all thanks to the nosy little ninja. The Hokage sighed. He really couldn't blame them for their questioning, though. They had looked underneath the underneath, like any good ninja should do and had found him out. He probably would have done the same thing if it had been the Shodaime or the Nidaime ordering him to do that. It still didn't make the situation easier for anyone.

He sighed once more. He could only hope that things would turn out alright in the end, and that if he really did have to tell the ninja population about what had happened, that they would understand and wouldn't treat Naruto any differently. He would tell the ninja about the Kyuubi if it meant getting his grandson back alive and well. _There I go again_, he thought with a small smile on his face. He was positive that the child would be rescued.

xxx

Kurenai grinned slightly as she continued to follow her boyfriend. She was about to let him know that she was behind him by about ten meters when she saw him enter the forested outskirts of the village. Where was he going? She had only been tagging along for a few minutes, and he had seemed to have had a lead, but now, he seemed to be headed toward a completely unknown place. He seemed all too focused, like he was trying to get somewhere in particular. And why the hell hadn't he noticed her yet? Her Asuma was an ANBU and he should have been able to pick up on something like that.

Just when she started to become suspicious of something, she realized that they had come to a clearing in the forest outside the village walls. She started to slow down when she noticed that Asuma's pace had drastically decreased within the span of a few seconds. She eventually stopped high up in a tree and watched as Asuma slowly went to the ground, seemingly to take a break. He was breathing hard. _Is Asuma really _that_ unfit? _she asked herself. He never became tired that easily.

Her eyes widened when she heard a 'poof' and no longer saw what her Asuma looked liked. In his place was a somewhat tall man. She couldn't see too many of his features because he was in the shadow of a tree. She could make out that he had what looked like a backpack on... a very large backpack. She placed a hand over her mouth when she watched him sit down against the tree that he was under and open the bag he was carrying. When he pulled out the object in the bag, she glared at the man with murder in her eyes and began to form a plan.

xxx

The mysterious ninja carefully took the object out of the backpack that he had been carrying under a powerful Henge. It turned out to be a small baby... with a ruffle of blonde hair on top of his head. He placed the baby in his lap and began to dig for something in a pouch in the backpack. He was sure the coast was clear, so he pulled the object out.

The object in question turned out to be a piece of metal... a very sharp piece of metal. The kind that ninja's used in battle. The object that the man had pulled out was a kunai, and he had placed it at the young child's neck. He removed a layer of cloth so he could talk out loud. He spoke in only a whisper to the young child that was asleep in his lap.

"Forgive me, young one, for what I am about to do to you. If you were older you would understand that you cannot go against the direct orders of your village leader, even if you do not want to do what he has ordered. I am sorry that it had to come to this, but our village leader cannot have two of your kind running around the shinobi nations. One of you will be enough. I'm sorry to say that the one I speak of is not you. Good bye, young one." The man tried his best to think of his dead sister to cause enough hatred in his heart to go through with the deed without feeling any regret.

As he brought the kunai down, his only thought was surrounded by the intent to kill the child. When the knife was inches away from the baby's throat, he felt his hand stop. He glanced down at it in surprise because he had been so focused on completing his mission. He saw another hand overlapping his. He turned his head around to come face to face with a dark haired woman that had red eyes. When he turned back, he watched as her hand grabbed the kunai out of his hand. She quickly turned the pointed object around to face the kidnapper and drove it into his rib cage.

What surprised the red eyed woman was when instead of blood, a different colored liquid came out of his wound. Her eyes snapped open when she saw her hand was covered in sand rather than a dark liquid and watched as the man before her crumbled away into a pile of dust. Naruto fell to the ground and hit his head on the ground rather hardly, which caused him to start crying.

Kurenai broke the genjutsu instantly and jumped away as five shuriken landed in the spot where she had been. She picked up Naruto along the way and jumped back up into the trees. When she landed on a somewhat high branch, she turned and threw the kunai that she still held at the place where the shuriken had come from.

The unknown ninja jumped out of his hiding place and sent three kunai in her direction, each surrounded by a familiar glow. _Oh shit!_ She applied a decent amount of chakra to her feet and jumped up onto a higher branch and watched as the kunai sailed _through_ the branch below her. The woman watched as the branch fell to the ground in several pieces. She was right; the glow of the kunai had been wind chakra. She mentally thanked her boyfriend for showing her some of his attacks when he used wind chakra to empower his weapons.

She cleared her mind and focused back on the situation at hand. She couldn't do much with her adopted son in her arms. All she could do was defend herself and the baby and hope that his cries would attract_ some_ kind of attention. She shifted the baby to her left arm so she could make her right arm free since she was right handed. The woman reached down to her kunai pouch and pulled out several of the sharp weapons. It was all she could do to buy herself some time.

xxx

The unknown ninja shrank back into the shadows and searched around for where the woman had gone. He had seen her leap away, just not where to. He was going to complete his commander's mission no matter what. That was for sure. He glanced around until he saw her dark figure just a little bit up higher than where he had thrown the kunai. He had to end this quickly. He was sure that back up would be coming for the woman, and he couldn't let that happen. Not when he was so close.

He weaved multiple hand signs and prepared one of his most dangerous jutsu. This would end it for the both of them, but it was the quickest and most efficient way to do it. The woman had a knack for genjutsu, so it would be useless to sneak up on her. So, he did the only other thing he could think of... taking her out with a mid range jutsu. It would take a good portion of his chakra, but it was well worth it if it meant completing his mission.

xxx

Kurenai was ready to throw the kunai or use them defensively at a moment's notice. She had also taken the precaution of sending chakra to her feet to jump away if need be. She crouched down a little bit, resembling a cat ready to pounce on something. There was no way the mysterious ninja was going to take them out. She would hold him off at least until back up came because she had to protect her adopted son.

The red eyed woman was broken out of her thoughts when she heard the cry of something that was enough to almost make her blood freeze over. The attack that her opponent called out shocked the hell out of her because she hadn't imagined in her wildest dreams that someone would use an attack like that in that kind of situation. Unfortunately, she had never met the unknown ninja before. The frightening attack name she heard happened to be a fairly well known one in her village, so she knew something about how to stop it...

"Fuuton: Kaze no Yaiba!"

That something that she knew about how to stop it would only work if she had both hands free. The other option she had was to get out of the attack's line of destruction. She went with it.

Kurenai formed a one handed hand seal and called out 'Kawarimi no Jutsu,' but opened her eyes to find the attack still coming at her. She hadn't known why her escape jutsu didn't work, so she tried to jump off the tree branch instead. That one failed too. All she could do was watch as the attack came closer and closer. The woman crouched down, still with Naruto in her arms, and held the child protectively to her chest with her arms wrapped tightly around him, but just loose enough not to suffocate the baby.

The blade of wind never came. Long after the attack should have hit, Kurenai glanced up to see a tall figure in front of her. Before she said anything, she looked down because she felt something around her feet and ankles. The red eyed woman grimaced slightly when she saw some sand fall back onto the ground below her. What the hell was that doing there? All she could assume was that it was what had been keeping her in place during the Kaze no Yaiba attack.

She looked up to see who had stopped the jutsu from reaching her and Naruto when she saw the person pivot on one foot and lift her up before jumping out of the tree. She watched over the person's shoulder as another wind based jutsu soared overhead. Damn... would had _that_ much chakra in store to do all of those attacks? She focused again once they landed on the ground.

"You okay, Kurenai-chan?" the shadowy figure asked as he set her down. She nodded quickly and watched as the figure before her called out to another person. That person turned out to be an ANBU. The man that had saved her asked her to give Naruto to the ANBU.

"Why?" was all she asked in response. He made a grunt. They didn't have time for this.

"Come on, Kurenai-chan, I need your help to take this guy down! No one else here has a fire affinity like you do! The ANBU is just going to watch Naruto so you can actually make some hand signs!" he explained as fast as possible in a slightly raised voice.

"All you had to do was say so, Asuma-kun," she snorted. "Fine, take him, but so help me, if he gets one scratch on him while in your care." She left the threat hanging and the man known as Asuma gave a slight grin at how protective she was of their adopted child. The other ANBU nodded quickly and leapt away, all the while making sure the child didn't get hurt, because he was in _no_ mood to handle an angry Kurenai.

Asuma turned to Kurenai. "Two of my partners are taking holding off the enemy ninja. We can take over whenever. I assume you know the plan?" he asked her with a small smirk on his face. She nodded.

"The usual?" she asked, returning the smirk. His smirk became wider, and she took that as a 'yes.' "Try to keep up." Just as she finished her sentence, she was off into the trees. He smiled at his girlfriend before he too took off after her. This was going to be fun.

xxx

Weird to be updating on a Tuesday, but whatever. We have the whole week off, so I'm going to enjoy it.

I know it's a little shorter than the other chapters, but I think this might become the regular chapter size from now on. I really don't know. I just go where the story takes me, and end the chapters whenever it ditches me on the side of the road.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! (I do, so I'm gone on Thursday.)

See ya next update! R&R!

Zashire


	5. The Plan

The Samurai Ninja

Chapter 5: The Plan

By: Zashire

The two ANBU that had been holding the enemy ninja off were faring nicely, mainly because they had yet to come in contact with their target more than once. They had to give the man credit, he was very good at hiding in the forest, but it was their job to be better. The two kept on looking around through the trees, but couldn't find the man. One of them heard a twig snap and looked over his shoulder to see a shuriken encased with wind chakra being sent straight at him.

He leaned him head to the side and let the shuriken whiz past him. Now he knew where the enemy was. He called his partner over and they immediately headed in the direction that the four pointed weapon had come from. When they made it there, they were both sent to the forest floor by a small C-rank wind jutsu. It would be pretty humiliating in the report later when they said that they had been taken out by such a small wind jutsu, but at least they could say that the enemy had used the element of surprise against them.

The mysterious ninja smiled at his success and quickly passed overhead before the two ANBU could get back to him before he reached his primary target. He leapt through a few trees until he came upon the place where he had seen the black haired woman fall to. Where had she gone? Not to mention, where had his target gone? His target was a newborn baby, so he couldn't just get up and waltz away. Someone took him away. Probably the red eyed woman.

Before he could decide on what to do, he heard something coming at him from behind. He pivoted and leapt out of the way. The man didn't care what it was because anything could be dangerous at that point. His unasked question was answered in the form of an explosion that sounded throughout the forest for miles. He smirked at his luck. That one had been close.

The man turned back to where the attack had come from and smirked when he saw two people. He immediately prepared a large jutsu when he realized who they were. If he could take them out, then all he would have to do would be to find the baby and eliminate him. It was all too easy. He focused back to the matter at hand, and continued to weave several hand signs. He saw that his opponents were doing the same thing and smirked when he noticed that he was the first to finish.

He quickly used his golden opportunity and called out the name of the jutsu, "Fuuton: Kaze no Yaiba!" He used the same jutsu almost twice in a row. It was really pulling him down because it was an A-rank jutsu. The man knew that this would be his last big and flashy jutsu for the night. It was all or nothing.

Kurenai and Asuma were slightly surprised at how fast the man above them had finished his jutsu. It didn't matter, though, because they had just finished theirs only moments after he had his. They glanced at each other and nodded. This would take the unknown ninja down. The two ninja both called out their jutsu names at the same time.

"Fuuton: Atsugai!"

"Katon: Karyuu Endan!"

Out of Kurenai's mouth came a long jet stream of fire that was aimed right for their opponent's sword of wind. The other ninja would have laughed at the pathetic attempt to destroy his jutsu because the force his was using to go in the direction against hers was much larger than hers against his, but refrained from doing so because he heard the other man's attack.

From Asuma came a large force of wind that seemed like it matched the offending ninja's perfectly. The main reason why the enemy's attack failed to do any damage to them was because Asuma's jutsu only helped to make his girlfriend's stronger, which caused them to have a combined force that by far overpowered their opponent's.

It was all over within less than ten seconds. After the mighty fire stream had taken over the sword of wind, the man that had tried to kidnap Naruto was blown back in the other direction, and left Kurenai and Asuma on the forest floor, panting for air. The red eyed woman fell to her hands and knees and coughed up some blood onto the dirt below her. Asuma was by her side instantly, even though he was suffering some minor recoil from his attack too.

He bent down and placed a hand on her shoulder. He could feel her shaking beneath his touch. The dark haired man was about to speak to his girlfriend, but stopped when he heard an ANBU land beside him. He turned to see the very man that he had entrusted their adopted son with before him. The man spoke to him.

"Asuma-sama," he began. Asuma nodded. "Here is Naruto-san. Please take him while I go help the others capture the man who tried to kidnap him. You two have done enough. Please, rest." He finished and handed the small, blonde child over to Asuma, who accepted him thankfully. The ANBU nodded quickly and took off in the direction that the man had been blown in.

Asuma turned back to Kurenai, who was still shivering. Only now had he realized how cold out it was. He looked at his girlfriend to see that she was only wearing her Jounin vest with a small t-shirt underneath it. He mentally slapped himself for not doing anything about it sooner, even though he hadn't had time to do much. The dark haired man held the quieted Naruto in his arms and slowly shifted the small child around to take off his ANBU cloak.

When he had fully taken it off, he placed it around his girlfriend's shoulders and she nodded slightly in thanks. She slowly sat up and hugged the cloak to her cold body. She felt so stupid for not dressing more appropriately to the conditions. She shouldn't have acted so irrationally back at the house. It would have been far smarter to grab a sweater or something warmer than a t-shirt on the way out, but then again, they might have lost Naruto in the process if they hadn't done something about it immediately.

She smiled as she looked over to the sleeping form of Naruto in Asuma's arms. He looked so peaceful like that. She was very thankful that he had managed to fall back asleep during the fighting because he had already cried enough for one night. The dark haired woman leaned over to cuddle with her boyfriend. He used his arm to pull her into a sort of one handed hug because he still had to hold onto the child. She didn't care, though. As long as they were all together, she was fine with anything.

Asuma was the first to break the silence. "Are you okay?" he asked out of concern. She could tell that he was talking about earlier. She gave a brief nod in response.

"Yeah... I just overloaded the jutsu with too much elemental chakra, and it burned my throat. I wanted to hurt him so badly for what he almost did to Naru-chan..." she trailed off. She was still very tired because she had hardly slept at all during the night, and it was taking its toll now after the battle had been finished. Asuma smiled slightly at her new nickname for the boy.

He nodded in response. "You can tell me the details later, as long as you're okay." She gave a short and slow nod.

"Let's get back to the village. I don't know how much longer I can stay awake. I've been up all night tending to Naruto," she explained in a soft voice. Asuma's eyes widened a bit at the realization that she had been the reason why he hadn't woken up at all during the night. He then smiled and nodded.

"The other guys won't mind if we start heading back. Let's go," he finished before they took to the trees. Asuma still held onto Naruto and Kurenai had an arm wrapped around him to make sure she didn't fall due to her sleepiness.

After a few minutes of jumping through the trees, they came to the village wall and went to the front. The patrollers had understood them leaving over a middle section in the wall due to an emergency, but coming back in meant using a whole other procedure. When they came to the main gate, they slowed down their pace to a walk. Kurenai still used Asuma's support as they came up to the two ninja who had a night shift for gate duty because she had started to dose off a bit, and she really didn't feel like getting acquainted with the ground below her too soon.

One of the two ninja at the wooden desk looked up as three figures approached them. He turned to his partner and woke him up. When they realized that it was the Sandaime Hokage's son, their heads shot up and they quickly gave him a nod of respect. They saw how he was carrying a child and supporting a woman, and they couldn't help but let their curiosity get the better of them.

"Asuma-sama, who are they?" one of the two ninja asked the ANBU.

Asuma glanced at the two he was supporting. "That's not important right now, Kotetsu-san. I just came by to tell you to let my other partners know that I've already been through here when they come by. I left them to take care of something in the woods without telling them, so I hope I'm not beaten too badly." Asuma let out a nervous chuckle at the last part. He really hoped that the ANBU he worked with wouldn't be _too_ mad at him for leaving them behind. The ninja known as Kotetsu chuckled a bit only to be bonked on the head by the ninja that was sitting next to him.

"Try to show _some_ respect, idiot," the person said in an annoyed tone. Kotetsu glared over at his partner and stuck his tongue out. The person bonked him again. "You're a ninja, right? So, why are you always acting so childish while on the job?" His partner gave a snort at his antics.

"You always act so serious, Yuugao-chan. You need to learn how to lighten up a bit! I mean, for Kami's sake, we're still within the village walls!" he retorted in an equally annoyed tone, though his was more obnoxious. The ninja known as Yuugao bonked him on the head for the third time in less than two minutes.

Asuma saw the problem and tried his best to calm them down. "Come on guys, settle down a bit! By the way, where's your Jounin-sensei?" He glanced around, but the person on his mind was nowhere to be seen. He looked at them expectantly. "Why do two Genin have gate duty? Shouldn't at least one of you be Chuunin or higher?"

Yuugao gave a short nod. "Inoichi-sensei was called to the Hokage's tower in the middle of the job, so he told me to replace him while he was gone. Kotetsu-_chan_ is here because he was accompanying sensei on this D-rank mission, mainly because he needs a few more to enter the Chuunin exams with us this year." Kotetsu flushed in embarrassment. "Anyways, what was the calling all about? What could have possibly required so many ninja?"

Damn that smart girl. She was one of the only ones among the Genin who fully understood the bird system. She must have seen the one that had been calling for all of the ninja Jounin and above. He was about to say that he couldn't answer her question because it was classified information, when his eardrums nearly broke at the sound of a girlish squeal. Before the ANBU could even blink, the purple haired girl was standing right in front of him looking at the lump that was in his arms.

"Aww! He's so cute, Asuma-sama!" she squealed at the sight. He didn't know how she had missed seeing the child before, but sighed. This was going to be a _long _morning if he didn't get to the Hokage's tower and report that Naruto had been rescued. "Aww!" she squealed again. "Those whisker-things are so cute!" She traced one of them with her fingers, only to surprise herself when she heard a low 'purring' noise. She stared at the child in confusion, and Asuma did the same.

Something clicked in the older ninja's mind and told him that now was the time to get out of there. He listened to his thought's command and quickly told the other two that he had to go, and before either of them could do anything, he was already hopping from rooftop to rooftop in the direction of the Hokage's tower.

He sighed as he made it to his father's office within only a few minutes of leaving the village's main gate. That had been close. He really didn't want to make up an excuse, so he had done the next best thing in his mind. Run away.

He sighed again, and decided that he should report to his father as soon as possible to let him know that Naruto was okay so he could call back all of the ninja that he had sent out to search for the young boy. He lifted the now asleep Kurenai back onto his shoulder and went into the building.

xxx

Hiruzen was currently seated at his desk, awaiting any news on his missing grandson. He had expected Asuma and his team to be the first responders, mainly because they had been the first to set out in what they believed was the right direction. The only thing he had been able to do was to hope that everyone returned safely. That, and wait for the questioning about why he had sent the best of the village's ninja after one child. He knew they would have to do something about it. The Nara clan would not like to take 'no' for an answer, and the clan heads would probably agree that telling the ninja would be the best option. He still didn't know what to do for sure. He would have to consult Kurenai and Asuma before doing anything, at least if he wanted to be able to continue his reign as Hokage for a few more years.

_Everyone_ knew that a mad Kurenai was _not_ a fun Kurenai.

His thoughts were broken when he heard a knock on the door. _Time for the questioning_, he told himself in a painstaking voice. He was surprised when after he said for the person to come in, Asuma came through the door. His face visibly brightened when he saw the man carrying Naruto in one arm, but gave a look of concern toward the passed out form of Kurenai. He waited for an explanation as to what was going on and let Asuma walk up to his desk.

Asuma set Kurenai down on the couch and walked over to where his father was seated and let himself sit down, still with Naruto in his arms. Hiruzen nodded for him to begin, so he did.

"Long story short: My team and I found Kurenai-chan fighting the kidnapper," he nearly spat out the last word in disgust, but continued, "She was trying her best to keep Naruto safe while fighting, which caused a lot of problems for her. She's not injured, but she passed out after we defeated him from exhaustion. I left my team in the forest to take care of the enemy because I wanted to report back here as soon as possible so you could call back all of the other ninja."

The old Hokage gave a nod. He could tell that his son had also left his team behind to get Kurenai and Naruto back as soon as possible. It wasn't just for the mission. "Very well then. I presume you asked for a messenger bird to be sent out?" Hiruzen's response was a quick nod. "Then I believe the ninja will be back soon." He paused. "Onto a more pressing matter, I need to ask what you wish to do about the fact that almost all of the village's most powerful ninja were used to rescue a single child. They will want answers. Even though they followed my orders, it will not stop them from questioning me later about the reasons behind my actions. I cannot blame them either because had Hashirama-sama ordered something like that back in the day, I would have questioned his motives, too."

Asuma gave a gruff nod. "What _can_ we do? The only logical thing to do would be to make up a lie..." He trailed off as he tried to come up with possible excuses. Hiruzen broke him out of his thoughts by slowly shaking his head. Asuma gave his father a questioning look.

"I'm afraid that won't work," he stated in a solemn tone. Asuma tilted his head to the side in confusion. "If we tell them a lie now, what do you think will happen if they somehow come across the truth when Naruto gets older?" Asuma nodded at his father's logic.

"What do you propose we do then?" he asked, having a slight clue as to where the conversation was going.

Hiruzen gave a sigh. "I propose we tell the Jounin and ANBU who were sent out on the mission the truth, and no one else. If we can at least have the ones who are curious about what happened know the truth, the number of rumors that go around the village should drastically decrease. I trust all of the Jounin and ANBU in this village to not spread classified information. Please take into consideration that this is all for Naruto's well being. We all want him to grow up like any other child in Konoha, and this way will help insure that he does."

Asuma frowned. "How can you expect him to grow up exactly like any other child in this village with the burden that he carries? Some day, everyone is going to know about the Kyuubi, and it will not be pretty." Hiruzen nodded.

"I realize that, but this seems to be our only way out of this mess. Yes, the villagers will know about the Kyuubi sooner or later, but let us at least provide Naruto with some protection while at a younger age. If only the Jounin and ANBU know about the Kyuubi, they will at least be able to provide the boy with some protection as he grows up. They will have more time to get used to it than everyone else will. I trust in the upper level ninja of this village to not spread this information, but if the villagers ever find out, well, all I can say is that we can only hope for the best." The Hokage shifted in his seat a bit.

Asuma looked down at the child in his arms. "Do what you must, but let us at least come up with a back up plan... something to do if the villagers ever get out of control if they find out." Hiruzen gave a slow nod.

"What sort of plan?" he asked in a suspicious tone.

Asuma gave a sigh. "I don't know really... somewhere to go if we need to... just to let them vent their anger off on something else. Hell, I don't even know if they'll be angry. Most of them loved the Yondaime, and probably don't doubt his sealing methods. I believe that they'll treat Naruto properly, but one can never be too sure. What I'm asking is to be allowed to maybe move to another village for a few years if we need to."

Hiruzen nodded and smiled slightly. "That would be quite acceptable. I'm sure Kakashi-san wouldn't mind taking over two ANBU teams at once." He chuckled a bit at his last sentence. Kakashi had always been a good ninja. He would do anything the Hokage told him to, unlike the person that was seated in front of him. The old Hokage always knew that he could get to his son by talking about Kakashi because the dog summoner always followed the rules, and for some reason Asuma was always bugged by the fact that his father always bragged about people _other_ than his own son. It was too much fun.

Today though, Asuma wasn't exactly in the mood for his father's games. He gave a nod and sighed. "I'm sure he would. So... you're going to tell the Jounin and ANBU about the Kyuubi?" Hiruzen nodded, but felt a bit concerned at how serious his son was being. It was like him when his first son had been born. So, that was it... he was feeling protective about Naruto already. That was good. He glanced up as Asuma continued. "Well, do that whenever you please. I'm going to go take Kurenai-chan and Naruto back home."

They both nodded to each other, and Asuma stood up. He walked over to the couch and picked up his girlfriend, and then made his way over to the door. Just before he left he turned around. "By the way, we didn't figure out who the kidnapper was or anything like that." His father gave a nod. "_And_, you'll also have to replace a window in the room Naruto was staying in. It's kind of shattered." He slipped out the door as soon as he finished.

Hiruzen sighed. How was a window 'kind of' broken? It either was, or it wasn't. Maybe he should put his son in the Academy again to learn some grammar. It would provide him with some entertainment. An almost sixteen year old going to school with a bunch of eight and nine year olds. That would be the day. He gave another sigh and turned back to some paperwork that had come in overnight and waited for the ninja to return so he could explain one of the village's greatest secrets... one that he didn't know what the responses to being told it would be. He could only hope that they would be positive ones.

xxx

Asuma made his way over the rooftops of his home village in the direction of his clan's compound with two people in tow. He gave a sigh as he thought about what he and his father had just gone over. So, all of the Jounin and ANBU of the village would know about the Kyuubi, huh? He prayed that the knowledge wouldn't cause anyone any problems, especially Naruto. He didn't even want to think about the villagers reactions to the information if they ever figured it out. Some day, they probably would, but he hoped it wouldn't be for a while. At least by then, maybe Naruto would be known for something to the point where they wouldn't care anyway. He could only hope that things played out that way.

He gave another sigh. He would probably get beaten up by Kurenai once she learned what he had planned to do with his father. That wouldn't be pretty, but he knew that there would be consequences for his decision back when he made it and knew that he had to accept them. This was apparently one of them. Not a good one, but one nonetheless.

Speaking of consequences, he couldn't wait until his team of ANBU brought back the kidnapper! He wanted to beat the crap out of that little shit whether he was alive or not. It didn't matter. He had tried to take his and Kurenai's son, and he wanted some sort of revenge. It didn't matter what form it came in because he would take it in any way possible. The bastard deserved whatever the Konoha ninja dealt to him for taking a newborn child away from his family! He couldn't wait for Kurenai to wake up and tell him what else had happened while he wasn't there. He wanted to know every little detail so he could return it tenfold to the ninja, maybe more. He knew revenge usually wasn't the way to go, but if it was almost staring him in the face, he was willing to take it.

The dark haired man glanced around once more to see where he was since he had been lost in thought for a bit, and saw that he was almost back to the compound. _That was fast_, he mentally sighed. He had been thinking about the conversation _way_ too much in his opinion, and it was really starting to get to him. It would have been so much nicer if no one had tried to do anything to their son in the first place. No one would know about the Kyuubi, besides the people that were in the cave and the council, from what he had heard from his father. The situation would have been so much easier.

But no... some crazy idiot had to go and screw everything up, possibly including Naruto's life. It wasn't fair that one person could do that to so many people. Asuma gave a sigh and cut off his train of thought and focused more on where he was going. He would have been humiliated beyond belief if he had bypassed the clan compound because he was too lost in thought. Luckily, that had never happened before, but then again, there's a first time for everything.

He felt relieved when he saw that he hadn't passed up his destination. That was good. No backtracking needed. The dark haired man slowly came to a stop in front of the compound and landed inside the gates, just outside of the main door. As soon as he landed, apparently someone from inside heard him and came running out, almost directly into him. The person managed to stop just before hitting the ANBU ninja, and quickly bowed in apology.

Asuma sighed. "Enough with the formalities, Kari-san. I saw you almost everyday when I was little." She chuckled in response. The person that had almost run into him had been one of the maids that had worked in the house since he was a young child. She had taken a liking to Asuma, like he did to her very quickly. She would play with him whenever his father and mother were busy, and he loved her for it. Now that he was grown up, she started to see him less often and missed having the young boy around.

"It's just Kari, and I'm sorry for almost running you over, Asuma, but when I went to check on Naruto earlier this morning, I saw that he wasn't there, and neither were you or Kurenai-san. I started to panic and told the other maids about it. We all kept a constant eye out for you, and didn't stop until now," explained the woman who looked to be in her early forties. She glanced down at the baby in Asuma's arms.

"Is that Naruto then? I wasn't able to see him earlier; I was only told that he was staying at the household with you two for a while. That, and we've all heard about creature he carries." Asuma looked panicked at the last statement. She noticed this and quickly responded, "Do not worry; none of us are angry at him for it. Actually, most of the girls almost cried at the information." Asuma lightened up a bit at that. He was about to thank her when she cut him off. "Enough of this, let's go inside to get you three all fixed up. Kurenai-san looks like she could use some rest, and Naruto looks hungry." Asuma glanced down at the child he was holding and was surprised to see him awake, looking up at Asuma with big, blue, pleading eyes.

_He's already figuring out the puppy dog look... Great... This is going to be one hell of an adventure_, he thought to himself. He briefly wondered if any of his friends were like that when they were little, but stopped instantly when Maito Gai came to mind. That was just _way _too disturbing to even consider. It was just... wrong. He looked back up at the maid and his childhood playmate and nodded. He handed over the blonde child and began to follow Kari into the main house.

They soon arrived in the place where the kitchen met a lounging room, and Asuma set Kurenai down on the nearest couch. He watched her unconsciously reach for the blanket that was above her and wrap herself up. He chuckled quietly at her actions and turned to follow Kari into the kitchen.

When they entered a few maids were sitting at a table, apparently waiting for something to finish cooking. Their heads almost snapped toward the entrance when they walked in, and in an instant, all of the women were commenting on how cute the child was. Kari looked over them toward Asuma and chuckled at the face he was making. He had a girlfriend, but he still had yet to figure out what made women think babies were so darn cute.

Kari cleared her throat quickly and asked someone to prepare a small bottle. The child wouldn't need much since he had only been born the night before, and would probably be sleeping within the next half hour. The maid nodded and immediately went to work.

Kari's prediction was, well, somewhat true... Naruto had finished off his bottle faster than _any_ child should and looked as if he wanted another. They agreed and he finished off _another_ bottle before he finally looked satisfied. She burped him and brought him to a different room with a crib in it and let Asuma help the kid fall asleep. He didn't need much help in that department because as soon as the child's head touched the cushion beneath him, his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

Asuma chuckled and decided to stay in the room for a while until someone would take over watching him to make sure he wasn't attacked in his sleep again. That would not be fun for anyone. Kari had agreed and left the father and son alone by slipping out the door. Asuma smiled as he looked at the child. Aside from the markings from the fox, he would probably look almost identical to his father as he got older. He still hoped that Kushina was with him in some way. In what way, he didn't know, but anything would be nice. He then thought about how Konoha wouldn't have to worry about a Kyuubi running around because having a combined version of Kushina and Minato would be enough for them. That was a humorous thought.

The dark haired man gave a sigh and looked out the window. Well, the day that everyone had been waiting for had finally come. The day after one of the worst events had happened had come. Yes indeed, Konoha had a bright, new day to start over again because the evil was gone and there was nothing to be afraid of. Now all they had to do was put their minds to it and fix up their village again. Either way, they knew that if they had been able to survive through that one evil attack, then they would be able to survive through anything. It was only a matter of time until their home was restored back to its former glory... that, everyone knew for sure.

xxx

**A/N:** Another update. Yay! ^^ Don't worry. I know the story is going slowly right now, but it should pick up the pace within the next few chapters. Just a few more things before the plot gets moving again.

See ya next time!

Zashire


	6. Departure

**A/N:** I'm terribly sorry for the long wait. –glares at computer– My laptop got a virus that took over two weeks for my dad and I to fix. It caused problems when opening files and I didn't want to risk this one getting deleted, so I left it alone. I know this is a bit short, but I hope to update the next one soon. Please enjoy...

The Samurai Ninja

Chapter 6: Departure

By: Zashire

A year quickly passed for all of the ninja in Konoha... well, almost everyone in Konoha. The ones that it had slowed down for happened to be the adoptive parents of a certain blonde child... one by the name of Sarutobi Naruto. It had slowed down for them severely for several reasons. The main one being that the child could not stay asleep at night. To the baby's parents, it seemed as if he needed something every hour on the hour. Neither of the two seemed to get any sleep for the first half a year. Naruto calmed down somewhat toward the end of the year, which the two ninja thanked him greatly for. They finally managed to get a full night of sleep when that happened. It was heaven to them.

Don't get them wrong, they didn't mind caring for him, it was just that the responsibility that their sensei had entrusted them with had extended far beyond their imaginations. It just didn't seem possible that something so small could cause so much noise. They always enjoyed getting brief breaks when the Hokage assigned them a mission, because then a maid would take care of the child. They could still remember the first time that they had been assigned a mission.

Both of them had been hesitant to leave the village because Naruto wouldn't be under their supervision, and they didn't want him to get kidnapped again. Eventually, Kari had been able to convince them that she and the other maids would provide perfect protection from any intruders. She did that by bringing up the fact that she had been a Jounin at one point until she retired, and still knew a thing or two about protecting a small child, and the fact that there would be several ANBU around the house constantly providing surveillance to the blonde baby. Both had finally caved in and went on the mission. They were happy when they came back because everything was still fine. Kari had given them the whole 'I told you so' deal, and didn't let them live it down for a while.

One major thing that had happened during the year was that they had figured out who had tried to kidnap Naruto. It had been a Suna Jounin... one who was apparently named Yashamaru. The sad part was that they never managed to catch the man, mainly because he had found a way to trick the ANBU before they could totally contain him. They didn't do anything about the case because they didn't want to risk anyone else finding out about the Kyuubi. They had decided to wait until the next time the Hokage managed to meet the Kakzekage alone to discuss the issue.

The two villages were already enemies. They had not been allied to each other in years, but some thought that they would try for an alliance with Konoha soon because Kumo had started to become interested in the land that they held. Kumo's forces were far greater than Suna's, which put them at a disadvantage. Since Iwa and Suna had been enemies in the previous war, their only option would be Konoha. Even though they were technically enemies with each other, it was the only nation that they could possibly forge a shaky alliance with. Any alliance would be good for them.

But that was at least a few years off. Everyone was worried about the present more than the future. The reason behind that being they were still finishing up the reconstruction of their village from the Kyuubi attack. Over the year, word seemed to leak out through one of the Jounin, who had been told about the real location of the Kyuubi, that the Kyuubi was really somewhere in the village and not dead. The Sandaime put a stop to it when he figured out who it was who had been telling people about it. Let's just say, no one ever saw that man again... but the rumors continued. The Sandaime's law about keeping information on the Kyuubi a secret didn't seem to work to well because he couldn't tell everyone about it, otherwise they would all know the truth. He only used it to charge several people with the crime if he ever found them spilling the secret.

Thankfully, it didn't happen too often. Many people were smart enough to keep there mouths shut. The Sandaime hadn't cared why they didn't speak of it, he was just glad that they didn't. As long as the majority of the villagers didn't know about the secret, Naruto was scheduled to have a normal childhood... well, about as normal as his could get.

When his parents walked through the village with him in their arms, only a few would glare at him, while another few would smile, either because he was a cute child or they didn't care about the beast that he held. Either way, they could handle it. Nothing too bad had happened so far, and they were thankful for it. They wouldn't have to resort to Asuma's back up plan at this rate... which brought them to their current situation.

"No," was the flat answer the man before the dark haired ninja gave. He grunted in response.

"Why not, dad?" he asked in a slightly annoying tone. The person before him, who was his father, sighed.

"Because, we need you in the ANBU, Asuma. You're the only one who is qualified for the position you hold. I can't just let all my ninja get up and leave the village like that." He shook his head.

"Not all of the ninja are going to be leaving the village! I'm just one person! Besides, Kakashi-san can take care of my position. He's _more_ than qualified to do that. The guy's a freakin' genius! He _is_ the one who created his own assassination jutsu that has hardly ever failed him. Let him have my job," Asuma debated back.

The Hokage sighed once more. "He's not the one who came up with one of the most efficient ways to use their chakra to kill someone. His way is far more reckless than yours is. While he may be more powerful than you in some aspects, he lacks the ability to use a jutsu in a quiet manner. All of his are noisy and alert the victim before he kills them. Your way is far quieter which allows you to sneak up on them... a tactic that is important for an ANBU to have."

Asuma gave a short nod. "But the only reason I am this way is because I was able to gain experience through my position. Let him take it and become a better ninja in the process. Besides, how many people get asked to join the Twelve Guardians in their lifetime?"

Hiruzen rubbed a hand over his face. "Fine." Asuma brightened at this. "On the condition that you send me a report every few months, half a year at the latest, about how things are going. I also want you to be able to come here if need be. Make sure that the Daimyo is aware of these conditions. You may also want to see if it is okay to bring Naruto and Kurenai-san." Asuma nodded. It might be hard to get the Daimyo to agree to the second condition, but it was all worth it if he was going to be able to become a part of the Twelve Guardians.

"Thanks, dad," he said with a smile.

Hiruzen grunted. "You said Kurenai-san will not mind this, correct?" His son gave a short nod. "And you plan to leave in a week from now to continue your training, correct?" Another nod.

"Yes, we've talked it over already and she agreed that she would bring Naruto with her in two years from now to live there once I become one of the Guard." Hiruzen gave a nod at his son's explanation. They had been over the details already. He would finish his training up as a swordsman for two years, but couldn't bring anyone with him because of the rules at the monastery, which would cause him to bunk with several others who were in training there. It just wouldn't work well. So, instead, they managed to agree that the other two would come after he became one of the Guard, and had his own place to stay at.

"I hope your training goes well, and enjoy your last week in the village for some time now," Hiruzen grumbled as he thought about transferring Kakashi to Asuma's position at ANBU. Asuma nodded his thanks and left the office.

xxx

Kurenai was busy with Naruto at the moment. He had wanted to be fed, and he got what he wanted, when he wanted it... all the time. She didn't mind providing it, but it was taxing on her energy. She was thankful when Kari would help her out with the blonde child, so she could take a break. How in the hell did her sensei expect her students to do everything? Without Kari's and the other maids' help, she didn't know where she'd be. They helped her whenever she really needed it, but made her do enough stuff to get what it meant to be a parent.

_But I'm a ninja! And I'm only seventeen!_ she argued back to herself. Wait, that sounded really stupid. She was almost a legal adult, but by ninja standards, she was beyond that. She felt like pounding her head against a wall. If she was going to argue with herself, she might as well at least try to come up with some good arguments. She had been babysitting before on D-rank missions at the age of twelve, why should she complain about it now? _But that's different! Now the child really is yours! You have to watch him one hundred percent of the time! Not just part time like you did while babysitting!_ Finally, a good argument. But, that one had her beat. She couldn't come up with any comeback, so she sighed and admitted defeat.

Kari, who had just finished preparing a bottle for Naruto, tapped Kurenai one the shoulder lightly. Kurenai snapped her attention back to the situation at hand.

"Anything wrong?" she asked in a concerned voice.

Kurenai quickly shook her head. "Nope, nothing!" Her voice was a little loud, and she felt embarrassed for losing concentration like that.

Kari nodded, somewhat slowly. "Okay, then. If you say so." She handed the bottle to Kurenai, who accepted it thankfully and sat down to feed Naruto. The boy immediately stopped crying and began to tank it down. The red eyed woman smiled softly at him.

Kari came up behind her and leaned against the wall. "Let me know if you need any extra help while Asuma's gone," she said with a sigh. "Crazy guy. First he agrees to help take care of a child, then he goes off to follow some dream of his, leaving you two in the dust." She sighed again.

Kurenai began to talk, but continued to focus on Naruto. "He didn't just do it because he wanted to. It's also in our best interest for him to go there."

Kari glanced up. "Oh?"

The red eyed woman finally turned to the maid. "Since we've been taking care of Naruto, we haven't had as much time to go on missions and earn money. We talked it over with Hiruzen-sama, and decided that it would be best for Asuma-kun to take the job since it pays a lot better than being the head of an ANBU squad does. It's hard to pay off staying here, and taking care of Naruto and ourselves. Our current salary just doesn't allow it." Kari nodded. "I can tell Hiruzen-sama is slightly annoyed that he has had to help us pay off some debts, but he agreed to help support Naruto and I for a few more years, until we go to the temple. There, we can get a house, and the rent is already covered. When we come back, we'll have more than enough to support everything."

Kari nodded again. "That sounds like a good plan. What will _you _be doing while you're there, seeing as you won't be working as a ninja for a while?"

"Nothing too important." She thought for a moment. "I'll probably get a job in the nearby town. Other than that, I'll be helping with Naruto since Asuma won't be around as much. I won't forget to keep up my training either," she said with a smile.

Kari smiled back. "That's good. By the way, I think you should burp him." She pointed down to the blonde in the woman's arms.

Kurenai had almost forgotten about Naruto and saw him in her arms. He had just finished his bottle and looked like he was about to fall asleep. It wouldn't end well if he threw up when he woke up later. She quickly did as instructed before the child could pass out and sighed when she was finished. That was close. She looked back up at Kari who was chuckling slightly.

She sighed. "It's probably funny for you since your son is already my age and you been through all this before, right?"

The maid stopped chuckling and nodded. "I'm sorry, but it's funny to watch someone else go through the same problems I did."

Kurenai sighed again. She stood up from her seat, with the child still in her arms, and walked out of the room, leaving Kari to take care of the bottle. She smiled at Kurenai before she turned to head toward the kitchen to put the bottle with the other dirty dishes that they would wash later.

xxx

During the year that had passed, Asuma and Kurenai had moved to one of the houses on the compound rather than staying at the main house. Hiruzen had sent Kari to help them out on a daily basis, and to watch over Naruto when his parents weren't around. Kari had been glad to help them because she adored Naruto. She sort of acted as his playmate when Asuma and Kurenai were out on a mission or something. One time she would never forget was when Asuma had gone with Kurenai on a mission to a nearby town.

She had been playing with the small child who had just learned how to sit up straight. They were playing with a couple of stuffed animals, when she left the room momentarily to get a bottle that she had been preparing for the child. While she was gone, Naruto had thrown one of the toys in the air, and it went out of his reach. He tried to get it back, but to no avail. Rather than waiting for Kari to come back, he improvised.

The maid was in for a shocker when she brought the bottle back into the room and saw him crawling across the floor to get the stuffed animal back. He shouldn't be doing that for another month or two at the earliest. He was only five months old! It was way before the average time for learning how to crawl. Though it happened at an early age, it was usually pretty rare. She smiled down at the child and watched him go get the stuffed animal.

When she realized what animal it was that he was after, her eyes widened a bit. _Maybe the fox is helping him?_ she wondered to herself. Whether the creature was or not really didn't matter, it didn't keep it from being interesting. She let him accomplish his goal before she walked over and sat down beside him. He gave a weird sort of smile when he grabbed onto animal and held it out to her. Kari smiled and accepted the toy.

"Thank you, Naruto-chan," she said to the boy. She then put the fox to the side and picked up the child to feed him. He took the bottle out of her hands and began to suck on the top of it. He had learned how to feed himself in a way, although the adult giving him the bottle would have to adjust it sometimes so he wasn't drinking plastic.

She had watched as the child put his mouth over the lid, showing the few teeth he had grown in. His two top canines. She could see the bottom ones coming in, but the two top ones had been the first. The child seemed like a baby form of a cross between a human and a fox. That, however, only added to his cuteness. Whenever he smiled, he looked like some chibi vampire or something because of his two teeth. It was a little odd, but anyone who saw it would always crack up at him because of the curious look that followed.

In her opinion, he had advanced very quickly for his age. If he was crawling at the age of five months, she didn't know how soon it would be when he was walking. It would provide for some entertainment when his parents came back home. That she knew was almost guaranteed to happen.

xxx

Kari shook her head at the memory of that day. It had proved to be an exciting one. Before she could think of anything else, she heard someone knock on the door and come in.

"Hi, I'm home!" he called out in a not too loud voice. Kurenai had beaten it into him to be somewhat quieter around the house since Naruto was there. He never knew when the child would be sleeping, so he had been forced to be quieter.

Kari turned around and greeted him as he passed the kitchen. She told him where Kurenai was and said that she would be leaving for the night after she took care of the dishes. It was getting somewhat late, and she was going out with one of her friends for the night to see a movie.

Asuma nodded and thanked her. He started heading down the hallway in the direction of Naruto's room, where Kurenai had apparently gone. He still found it somewhat hard to believe that he and Kurenai were living at his clan's compound, and weren't in their apartment anymore. It already felt like they were married because of how they were living... no, too early to be thinking that way. He had just turned seventeen a few weeks ago, and he didn't want to be thinking that way for at _least_ a few more years. Sure they were in a close relationship, but no where near that level. Yes, they thought of themselves as Naruto's parents, but they only thought of each other as boyfriend and girlfriend. They didn't want to take anything too quickly given their age.

It still amazed him at how much had changed in only a year. He thought back to the night the Kyuubi attacked. It seemed like a few years had passed since then, not only one. He then thought about seeing Yuugao and Kotetsu at the gate on the way back from the kidnapping incident. That night, the blonde baby had actually _purred_ while in his arms. He had _never_ seen any child do that, nor adult for that matter. He hadn't told anyone about it, and decided he could either use it to bug the poor kid in the future, or try it sometime to see what happened. He chose the former and did nothing. It never seemed to happen, but then again, no one ever did what Yuugao did that night.

He focused back on where he was going when he heard the sound of a door closing. He looked up to see Kurenai coming in his direction. He saw her brighten in a way when she saw him and smiled at her.

"Hey, Kurenai-chan, what's up?" he asked casually.

"Nothing, I just put Naruto-chan down for a nap. His canines and front teeth are already in. I'll talk to Kari-san about taking him off the formula soon. He won't need it much longer. While you were gone, we also worked on walking with him, but he still seems to prefer crawling. It's kind of funny; he's been crawling for over seven months now, and still hasn't taken to walking yet. He'll have to eventually," she explained with a shrug at the last part.

Asuma nodded and sighed. "So, what do you want to do tonight? I'm only in town for another week, might as well make it last." Kurenai became a bit sad when he said the 'one week' part. Asuma noticed this and tried to make her feel better. "Come on, Kurenai-chan. Let's go get dinner. I'm pretty sure you haven't eaten yet, right?" His response was a grumbling noise and an embarrassed Kurenai. He smirked. "Thought so. Don't worry about Naruto because we have an ANBU squad just outside his window. Kari will check on him before she leaves, so he's fine."

She gave a nod and smiled. "Then let's go." They both walked down the hallway and he stopped to hold the door open for her. As she walked out, she turned her head. "By the way, you're paying for this. I need all the money I can get to pay off living at the house while you're gone." He groaned and followed her out.

Kari chuckled from the kitchen at the conversation she overheard. They would be good for one another and Naruto in the future. Both were doing good so far, and if they kept it up, it would work out nicely. She smiled as she finished up the last of the dishes and went to check on Naruto. He was fine. She nodded to one of the ANBU she could see from outside as he passed, and he nodded back. She left the room after saying a brief goodbye to Naruto, and went to the front of the house. She put her jacket on and opened the door.

_Asuma and Kurenai can have their fun, but I need mine too_, she thought as she walked out of the house and closed the door behind her. She made her way to the front of the compound and met up with her friend. She was going to enjoy her night at the movies and maybe a restaurant afterward. Who knew what would happen? All she knew was that she was looking forward to seeing what the hell was going to happen to Karao and Sumate in the new movie. It was going to be so exciting!

xxx

The week had come and gone somewhat quickly for the three living in the house on the Sarutobi compound. Kurenai and Asuma had gone out almost every night, a few times with Naruto. They didn't care for any bad looks that they were given for having the Kyuubi container with them and just bypassed all of them. It didn't matter as long as Naruto was happy. Seeing the smile on the boy's face could bring one to theirs in an instant. He just had something weird about him that made everyone he was near want to get rid of any anger they had and smile.

After Asuma's last week in town was through, both of Naruto's parents became sad. Even though Naruto was only a year old, he could somehow sense his parents' distress. He would often crawl over to them, faster than anyone could comprehend, and tap their leg. They would pick him up and he would smile until they chuckled or gave him some indication that they were happy. It was the best he could do for them.

"We'll miss you," Kurenai said as she stood at the gate with Naruto by her side. He wanted to be assisted in walking rather than being carried. The 'assisted' part meaning his parents lifting him up by his arms every few seconds and swinging him. It was a funny thing for him to be doing, but they didn't mind it.

Asuma nodded. "I will too. I'll send you something if I can when I send my reports to dad." The red eyed woman before him smiled slightly.

"I guess we'll see you in a few years then," she said as she bit her lip and looked down.

Asuma saw this and walked forward and pulled her into a hug. She used her free arm to wrap it around the dark haired man to hug him back. Kurenai buried her head into his neck, while he settled for keeping his on top of her head. Neither one knew how long they stayed like that, but eventually Asuma pulled back.

Kurenai, on the other hand, wasn't willing to let him go that easily. She leaned forward before he pulled back all the way and dived in for a kiss. Asuma's eyes widened slightly before he almost sighed and kissed her back. Before they could almost go into a make out session, Asuma felt something tugging on his pant leg.

Curiosity got the better of him and he pulled out of the kiss and looked down to see Naruto with an odd look on his face. He immediately blushed, and turned away. Kurenai did the same when she realized what had happened. The way that they had turned allowed them to see the ninja that had gate duty. The two were promptly laughing their asses off at them, which caused the two ninja to blush even more.

They looked back at each other. Asuma was the first to break the silence.

"So, I'll be seeing ya then?"

Kurenai bopped him on the head. "You better be seeing us again!" Asuma nodded dumbly. She sighed. "See ya later, then."

Asuma nodded. "Take care of Naruto and yourself while I'm gone. If you need any help, you know where to find it. Ibiki and Anko are always options too. You know, I'd really like to see what Anko and Naruto would do in a room together when he gets older. He really looks like he's going to have a mischievous side to him when he grows up."

Kurenai snorted. "Not if I can help it." She sighed after a few moments. "Well, you better get going. I doubt they'd like it if you were late." Asuma nodded.

"Bye then."

"Goodbye," she responded and leaned in to kiss him one more time. It was a much shorter one, but it still held the same meaning as the first one. Asuma bent down and hugged Naruto, who just stood there looking helpless. He didn't understand what was going on, so he just went with it.

The man then stood back up and gave Kurenai a hug. He turned away and started to walk off toward the forest that surrounded the village. He shouted out one last goodbye before she couldn't see him anymore because he had taken to the trees. She turned around and lifted Naruto up. He could see a few tear marks on her cheeks.

The boy gave her a confused look, and she responded, "Mommy needs some company. Let's go back home." He didn't understand her, so he just sat still in her arms. He smiled toward his mom, which caused her to smile in response as she walked in the direction of the compound. It didn't matter how sad she was, the blonde boy could always bring a smile to her face in any place and at any time. That ability would help him in the future if he managed to keep it up.

She decided not to focus on the future too much because she wasn't there yet. All she needed to do was worry about the now, and not something that was so far off. Worrying about that wouldn't help anyone. She gave a sigh. It still didn't make it any easier in getting over the fact that she wouldn't see her boyfriend for two years. At least she had Naruto. He would be with her the entire time. And the fact that he had a grin that made it that much easier to get up in the morning didn't take away from anything either. It would be any interesting two years. That was a guarantee.

xxx

**A/N:** Hope you liked it.

R&R,

Zashire


	7. The Times That Passed

**A/N: **I think the original version was more popular. xD I should probably try to make the summary more interesting at some point in time. Ah well. How believable was it that a two year old could speak perfect English or use his own knives at the age of two? I think common sense completely flew over my head when writing that story, be it fantasy or not. Well, enjoy...

The Samurai Ninja

Chapter 7: The Times That Passed

By: Zashire

"Anko-nee! Anko-nee! 'Nake! Owie!" A little three year old boy cried as he ran down the hallway toward a purple haired woman. She turned around and gave a surprised expression when she felt two arms wrap around one of her legs. The woman moved the boy away and bent down to meet him at his eye level.

"What wrong, Naruto-kun?" she asked in a concerned voice. In response, he held up his hand which was slightly red.

"'Nakey bite me," he said in a sad voice. Anko sighed. She shouldn't have let him play with that summon. One time while she had been babysitting him, he had seen her using the snake to get something, and had asked to pet it. She allowed him to and he eventually ended up playing with the little creature that he had dubbed 'Snakey.'

Apparently he did something to bother it this time, and the snake finally retaliated. Thankfully, Kurenai never found out about her son's 'playmate.' That would be bad. She sighed again. She would have a talk with that summon later, but now, she had more important matters to attend to.

"You'll be alright, Naruto-kun. I'll give you an ice pack to stop it from swelling," she said as she stood up. The boy looked up at her curiously.

"Mommy kisses owie," the little blonde stated. Whenever he hurt himself at home, his mommy would always make things better by kissing it.

Anko almost rolled her eyes. What had Kurenai been doing with this boy? It took her a minute to realize that the person in front of her was only a child. He didn't know any better. She sighed... again.

"This will help a lot more, Naruto-kun," she did her best to explain. Even though the child seemed to recover rapidly from what they could only assume was from the Kyuubi's help, she still needed to stop his hand from swelling. Thankfully, the snake hadn't been poisonous; otherwise, she would be in a whole world of trouble with Kurenai.

Naruto was about to complain, but stopped. Maybe Anko's way of helping him would be better. He decided to wait instead, and watched as the purple haired woman pulled what looked like an ice block out of her freezer. She turned back toward the child and bent down.

"I need you to hold it like this," she said as she placed the frozen object on top of his snake bite. He nodded once. She smiled. "Be careful with Snakey from now on. I'll have to have a talk with him later."

Naruto looked up from his wound. "'Nakey not bad! I poke him," he explained, trying his best to keep the blame from going to the snake. Anko smiled softly and shook her head.

"Never mind about that. How about we go out and get some lunch?" she asked the child. He grinned and she took that as a 'yes.' Whenever the child came over, she always took him out to eat because she thought it was nice. _That, and the kid's probably holding the most edible thing that there is in this apartment._ She sighed. It _was_ true. She was gone so often that she hardly ever had any time to go grocery shopping, and the proof of that could be found by opening the refrigerator's door. "So, where to?"

Naruto said the one and only thing he ever wanted. "Wamen!"

Anko sighed. It was his turn, after all. Last time they went out for lunch, Anko had to almost drag him to the dango shop. They always ended up fighting over which was better, dango or ramen. Anko always told herself she won because Naruto would get distracted by the food and forget the argument. She honestly couldn't believe that she was arguing with a three year old. It was humiliating if she thought about it as someone looking in on their conversation from the outside. That's pretty much why she didn't think like that too often.

She looked back at the kid. "Fine, let's go." The blonde cheered and ran to the front of the apartment, almost anticipating the door to open for him automatically. He turned back to see Anko walking in a different direction and huffed.

"Where you going?" he asked. He received no response and was forced to wait until she came back.

When she reentered the room, Naruto saw that she had a small jacket in one of her hands. He gave her a questioning look.

"You're not getting sick on my watch. If you get sick, your mom's going to be all over me about it. Put this on." She helped the blonde zip up the jacket once it was on and finally opened the door. "Let's go."

When they arrived at Naruto's favorite ramen place, a young girl that was sitting on a stool behind the counter greeted them, and perked up even more when she saw Naruto. It was a little hard to see him since he was walking beside Anko, but she managed to catch a glimpse of his blonde hair as he was helped onto a stool on the side of the counter opposite her.

"Welcome, Naruto-kun, Anko-chan," she said in an excited voice. She spun around on the stool. "Dad! Anko-chan and Naruto-kun are back!" After a few moments of silence, the two frequent customers saw an older looking man come out from the back of the place.

"Ah! Good to see you again!" he said in a welcoming voice. "So, what can I get for you?"

Anko looked at Naruto and the child nodded. "The usual." The older man knew that 'the usual' meant a large bowl of miso ramen for Naruto and a medium bowl of chicken ramen for Anko. They had been there _way_ too often for him not to know. He smiled and wandered into the back, saying that it would be a few minutes, and that the young girl would keep them entertained.

Naruto looked over to his friend. "Hi Ayame-chan! Anko-neesan said we come here!"

The young girl known as Ayame nodded. "It's been a while since you've been here, but you haven't missed much." She huffed and leaned her chin on one hand. "How have you been doing?"

Anko smiled at the girl's behavior. She acted just like Naruto when she was bored. It was a pretty funny sight, especially when they were both in the exact same pose. The little girl sure was something, though. Anko sometimes couldn't believe how much she helped her father out with the cooking. She was sure most women would have a fit if they saw an eight year old using a stove, but that never happened since her father seemed to be more lenient than most.

As soon as the girl had started to walk, it seemed like she had taken an interest in cooking. Her interest only seemed to grow since her father was the only role model she had when she was younger because her mother had passed away when she was born. She wasn't the only one at that restaurant whose mother died the day they were born. At least Naruto's mother had entrusted her child to someone before she died. Even if she hadn't, her students would have worked something out if they could, but it was still nice that she was able to pass on knowing that her child was in safe hands.

That brought her to another thought. There would come a day in the future when Naruto would be able to put two and two together and figure out he was adopted. How would they all explain that to him? She really hoped it wasn't anytime soon. He could remain clueless to it for a while longer, and everything would be okay.

Speaking of adoption, how would Naruto react to seeing his father for the first time he could probably remember? Sure, the kid probably remembered _something_ about an older man in his short life, but actually getting to know him would be a whole other process. That was a day that she was sad she would have to miss. She would have to get details on it from Kurenai in a letter some other time.

Anko was snapped back to reality when she heard the shop owner call out, "Ramen's ready!" She smiled as she looked over to the two kids who were in a conversation. It was more like someone teaching a lesson because for every word Naruto managed to get in, Ayame had said another hundred or so.

The man walked up and placed the ramen bowls on the counter in front of them. It smelled so good. Anko grabbed to pairs of chopsticks and handed one to Naruto.

"Thanks, Teuchi-san," the purple haired woman said with a grin. The man nodded with a grin and sat down next to his daughter so he could join the conversation.

While the two adults went off on a tangent, the two children continued what they had been doing previously... only this time, Ayame had _fully_ taken over the conversation. Naruto didn't really care because he was satisfied with eating his ramen and being with his friends.

After a few minutes, Anko glanced down and saw Naruto eating. Thank Kami that he had learned how to use chopsticks. Even though his usage of them was a little off, he still managed to get the food in his mouth without making a mess. That was something to be grateful for. The first few times they had come, Naruto hadn't even known what chopsticks were. Anko had quickly fixed that by teaching him... that is, if you could call her methods 'teaching.'

The first three times, she had been fine with feeding him, but after that, she had put the chopsticks in front of him and made him do it the old fashioned way, saying that if he couldn't figure out how to use them, then he wouldn't be eating warm ramen. It had been a lot of encouragement and he picked up the tactic within a few days.

When Kurenai found out, she was happy, although she never learned that Anko hardly did anything for Naruto. The blonde was too damn kind. He never told on people, which he could have done many times in her case, and he always tried to take the blame himself if he was involved in anything that went wrong. The kid was only three! How he pulled that off she would never know. Either way, it was a nice thing to have.

After a few minutes had passed, the two were finished with their ramen. They finished their conversations and stood up, and then began to walk out.

"See you some other time!" Anko called over her shoulder as they left.

"Bye Ayame-chan!" Naruto said in a somewhat loud voice.

"Bye Naruto-kun!" She smiled and waved.

As they walked down the streets, Anko finally decided to break the silence that had seemed to have been a cloud around them for the past few minutes.

"So, where to next?" she pondered out loud. "We could always bug Ibiki. I'm almost positive he has today off."

At the mention of Ibiki's name, Naruto immediately hyped up. "Yeah! Go Ibiki-niisan!" Anko couldn't help but grin at Naruto's enthusiasm. The kid loved seeing Ibiki almost as much as he loved ramen, and that was saying something. She hardly ever took him to see that man because he was always busy, and never had time for anything. The only times she had usually seen him were when they went on missions, but other than that, he was always working in the Torture and Interrogation Unit. Sure, she was working there too, but she was at a far lower level than he was. Maybe someday they would be partners again... it was so much fun to terrorize their captives!

They were good together, too. A few years ago would have found them both apprentices at the same level, but slowly, Ibiki had found his way past her, and before she knew it, she had been assigned a new partner.

She sighed. Too bad. It had been a lot of fun working with him, especially since they were teammates. She hoped to get back to his level soon. It would be several years ago all over again.

Naruto shook her out of her thoughts. "What story tell today?"

That was it. Precisely _why _the kid loved Ibiki so much. He was one of the best storytellers she knew. She and her teammates had found that one out when he first entered the Torture and Interrogation Unit. He had a way with words that could be used in both good and bad ways. The bad way meaning he could make his prisoners question themselves, and slowly tear apart their minds in ways that were almost unimaginable in the entire village. The good way, which Naruto loved, was using his ability to create almost picture perfect images in someone's mind and tell them a story. The man was amazing in that aspect.

She turned back to the blonde and answered his question. "I don't know... which one do you want him to tell you?"

Naruto brightened at this. "Hashi'ama!" Anko sighed. That had been the kid's favorite story, and every time she took him to Ibiki's place, he had always begged to be told that story. He was only lucky enough to be told half the time he begged for it, but it seemed to be good enough by his standards.

"Let's go, then. Maybe we'll catch him before he leaves to go do something else."

Anko and the boy continued to walk down the streets until they came to an apartment complex. The purple haired woman reached down and pulled the child into her arms. Naruto was used to this method. Since Ibiki lived on the seventh floor, Anko went up there by jumping rather than walking up the stairs. Call her lazy, but she thought it was pretty dang useful.

Naruto enjoyed the breeze as they went up toward the right level. They stopped on a balcony that had several potted plants out on it. It was one of the only things that made Ibiki's house recognizable. All of his neighbors had next to nothing on their balconies, but Ibiki managed to keep a few original things out on his. It helped when trying to locate his home.

Anko set Naruto down and walked up to the sliding glass door. She knocked somewhat loudly and leaned back to wait for him to come.

They both heard the door being unlocked after a few minutes and watched as the man opened the door. He gave a small smile when he saw them and welcomed them in. He shut the door behind them and asked what they needed.

Anko sighed. "Naruto wants you to tell him the story about Hashirama-sama again. I have the kid for most of the day and decided to bring him here since we haven't seen you in a while."

Ibiki nodded. "Need anything to eat?"

The purple haired woman shook her head. "Already went out to get ramen. Actually, we just left that place a few minutes ago–"

Anko was cut off by the sound of Naruto's stomach growling. The child flushed in embarrassment and Anko stared at him. How could he still be hungry? The only people that were known for having such a large appetite were the Akimichi, and he wasn't one of them. _Probably from Minato-sama. Kushina-sensei was always saying how he could never stop eating ramen. Maybe it's in the genes..._ She thought about the possibilities.

Ibiki coughed. "It doesn't sound like he just ate." Anko huffed. Ibiki smiled at her childishness. "I _can_ get him something... edible." Anko growled at him, knowing that he was referring to her refrigerator that was probably full of bacteria and mold by now. He chuckled at that. "I'll go get you something, Naruto." The blonde smiled as Ibiki walked off into his kitchen.

When he came back a few minutes later, they saw that he was holding a few cookies. He gave two to Anko and two to Naruto, and they both thanked him for it. He then sat back in a chair and began his tale.

The story that Naruto like so much was about the Shodaime Hokage, otherwise known as Senju Hashirama. It was a compiled version of all of the stories that Ibiki had been told about the man in his lifetime. The two ninja in the room believed that Naruto liked it because of how the man could control wood and how he seemed almost one with nature. It was just so cool to the child.

His eyes would always get wide when he was told about how the man fought and won against the man known as Uchiha Madara. The child really didn't know what or where half of the stuff in the story was, but he went along with it because he liked hearing the parts he could understand, those mainly being how the man could make trees grow by focusing on a certain point in the ground. It would be such a cool ability to have. He sometimes wondered if there was anyone alive then that still had the ability. It would be so awesome to see it in action.

After thirty minutes or so passed, Ibiki finished his tale up and gave a small smile to Naruto's reaction. It was always the same. A big wide grin over half of his face. Anko nodded to Ibiki in thanks for telling his tale and he nodded back.

"I'm sorry to cut our meeting short, but I was called in by Hokage-sama to meet him this afternoon," Ibiki apologized as he stood up.

Anko nodded. "It's fine. Kurenai-chan should be coming by to get Naruto-kun soon."

Naruto stood up and looked at the tall man. "See before bye bye?"

The tall man with a bandana forehead protector turned and looked at Anko in confusion. His look clearly asked 'care to translate?' She chuckled. Ibiki hadn't spent nearly enough time around children to understand their usage of words, especially Naruto.

"He's asking if you'll see him before Kurenai-chan takes him to the Fire Temple in a week or so from now." Ibiki smirked at the explanation. She had been around Naruto way too much if she could translate the four word sentence like that.

He turned back to the child and nodded. "Yes, I'll see you before bye bye." Naruto's face brightened and he ran to hug the man's legs. When he did, Ibiki looked to Anko for help. She just sat their holding her laughter in from the man's pained expression. He looked so funny like that! There was the man who had tortured countless people mercilessly... and he was afraid of being hugged by a child.

She managed to keep her laughter in, and called Naruto back over after a few minutes telling him that they had to go. Ibiki bid them goodbye as he let them out the sliding door. Who knew kids could hug so tightly? Stupid strong, small arms. He turned back to go get ready for his meeting with the Hokage. Even though the kid could be weird sometimes, he was fun to have around, and he would miss the little brat while he was at the Fire Temple. _Well, that's life. I wonder what Hokage-sama wants to speak with me about..._

xxx

Kurenai smiled as she walked up the stairs to go retrieve her son. She had been gone all day because hospital work called to her. Too many people had called in sick and they needed someone to help take care of the patients at the building. So, she had to give up her day off to help them. Such was the life of a medic nin.

_Maybe I should go back into the ninja ranks again? I'm sure I'd be a Jounin by now_, she thought to herself. When she had entered the medical field, she had been a Chuunin, but since then, she had improved her abilities very nicely. She sure seemed as powerful as a Jounin. _Well, either way, I'll have to wait to decide on that one. _She couldn't switch ranks yet because she was leaving the village for who knew how many years to come, and wouldn't be serving as a ninja during that time.

She would miss her teammates while she was gone, but it couldn't be helped. They needed more money, and Asuma's new job had been the best opportunity. Sure, it might have been smarter to let Asuma finish his job, and then bring back whatever he had earned, but she couldn't go without seeing him for that long. It had already been about two years, and that was stretching it. Going without seeing him for five or more years would have been next to impossible.

She sighed. At least she was going to see him soon... and Naruto would be there with them. She was about to knock on the door when she heard someone running up to her.

"Mommy!" the little child cried in happiness as he ran up to her. He jumped a little bit when he reached her and she caught him in her arms.

"Hi Naruto-chan," she said and planted a kiss on his forehead. She moved him to her hip and looked over to see her friend Anko running up to them. "Where were you guys?"

Anko panted a little bit and stood up. "First off, your kid can run _fast_. And second, we were at Ibiki's apartment to visit." Kurenai smiled and nodded in response. Naruto had been known to ditch the person he was under the care of to run to whatever caught his attention. It was especially bad at stores, because if he saw something he liked on the other side of the street, he would immediately run there whether an adult was with him or not. It was surprising to everyone that he never got lost.

"Well, thanks for watching Naruto," the red eyed woman said with a smile. "The hospital managed to clear up somewhat early, so I was able to leave earlier. I'll be sure to have him come over some other time this week before we go."

Anko smiled with a nod. "Thanks. I'll be glad to watch him anytime I'm not working. And next time, Naruto, were going for dango." Naruto pouted at this. He loved his ramen. Why should he have to go eat dango? Evil snake women.

Kurenai sighed at the two. "Well sorry to cut this conversation short, but we need to stop at a few stores before they close." Anko nodded and said 'goodbye' as they walked down the hallway toward the building's exit.

The rest of the evening was spent making quick runs to different stores to pack for their trip. Kurenai was never one to wait until the last minute to do things, so she did them a week ahead of time. Naruto was dead tired by the time they got home and fell asleep after he ate a little dinner. His mom could go absolutely crazy sometimes, and it wasn't always fun to be around her when she did. Whatever, as long as things got done, he supposed it was fine. Besides, it was better to be tired a week before the trip than the night before.

xxx

The few days that Naruto and Kurenai had left in the village before they left passed quickly. Naruto had been able to visit Anko and Ibiki one last time before he left, and was happy for that. He still didn't quite understand where they were going, but he did know that he wouldn't be seeing them for a long time. He hoped that he would have someone to play with at the place his mom was taking him to. He also couldn't wait to find out who his 'father' was.

Kurenai had shown Naruto a few pictures of Asuma, and told him that he was 'daddy.' He caught onto it quickly, but had still yet to meet the man. He wondered hat he would be like. Would he act like Anko in her scary fun moments or like Ibiki, or something completely different? Either way, he really wanted to see him.

Speaking of seeing Asuma, they were on their way to do that right then. The two had just left the village after saying goodbye to Hiruzen and a few other friends, and were on the road to the Fire Temple. Naruto had been walking by his mother's side almost the entire time. If he ever became tired, she would carry him for a while until they took a few moments to rest. It had been really nice of her to do that.

"Naruto-chan?" Kurenai called as said boy cracked his eyelids open. The blonde had been sleeping and she had decided to wake him up. "Food's ready." She said with a smile, but blinked when Naruto was no longer in front of her, but instead, was over by the place where the food had been cooking. "Someone's hungry," she chuckled to herself as she walked over to the food area.

She almost laughed at how quickly Naruto wolfed down his food. He drank a glass of water immediately afterward to wash it down and was done before even she was. He must have been _really_ hungry to eat that fast. She couldn't blame him, though. They had been walking for almost five hours and had only stopped to sit down once. On that one break, they hadn't eaten anything, so it made sense that he was hungry.

As Kurenai finished her meal, she thought about trying to make it farther that night, but decided against it because the sun was almost all the way down. It would be impossible to put up a tent when it was pitch black out. She put away the dishes that they had used once everything had been eaten and began to work on the tent.

While his mother was putting up a tent, Naruto was trying to catch a squirrel that had knocked a small branch onto his head. When it had happened, Naruto's head had immediately shot up to look at the offending creature. He saw it was a squirrel, and decided to try and catch the cute animal. He had never been outside the village before, from what he could remember, and didn't get to see wild animals that often, so he decided to try and get up close and personal.

Though, it wasn't working too well for him. Every time he tried to climb the tree, he would instantly slide back to the ground. How could the squirrel get to the top if he couldn't? It wasn't fair. The blonde had tried countless ways, but had failed every attempt. He had thought about asking his mom for help, but decided against it since she was busy with the tent. What could make the squirrel come down?

...That's it!

xxx

Kurenai had been working on the tent and was almost finished with the job. Soon, she would be able to get ready for bed and fall asleep. It had been a very tiring day, and she was surprised that she hadn't fallen asleep in the process.

All was good until she heard a very unlikely screeching noise from behind her. She instantly turned around, not knowing what to think and saw something that made her almost fall to the ground in laughter.

Before her was Naruto hugging a squirrel to his face. Only, the squirrel's eyes looked to be bigger than its body from the pressure that was being put on it. The small kid's grip was far too tight.

The red eyed woman managed to contain her laughter and walked over to the blonde. She helped the squirrel get free, and it immediately ran back up another tree for safety. No way was it going to go back into the same tree if the blonde could get at it again. She turned back to Naruto who was looking at her with a pouting face.

"How did you get that squirrel down here, Naruto-chan?" she asked him in confusion. He pointed to a small rock and a stick. Had he flung a rock at the small animal? She was surprised that he didn't kill the poor thing. She sighed. "Please don't do that again."

"Why?" he asked, obviously still annoyed that his mother had made him release the squirrel.

"Because, how would you like it if someone you didn't know suddenly started hugging you? How would you feel?" Naruto grunted in response and she knew she had won. She picked him up in her arms. "Let's get some sleep now. We have a big day tomorrow. You'll get to see your daddy, remember." He broke into a grin at the reminder. He'd finally know who she had been talking about the whole time. He couldn't wait. Tomorrow would be so much fun...

xxx

**A/N:** Less than ten days since the last update! Yay! Hope you all liked it. The story is moving once again, yet another good thing. I actually started writing more ahead, so that _might _mean a few quicker updates... who knows?

Please read and review,

Happy New Years to you,

Zashire


	8. Reunion

A/N: NOTICE! Hey, everyone. I know it's been over two or so months since I posted the last chapter, and I deeply apologize for the wait. School's been taking all of my free time away from me, and when I'm not doing school work, I'm doing something else that doesn't involve writing. Anyway, I finally got around to posting another chapter, and let me say, this will probably be the last chapter for a LONG time (longer than two months). My life is about to get a heck of a lot busier, and I've run into a writer's block for this story, so to speak. I know what's going to happen in the immediate future, but I'm not one hundred percent sure about long term stuff, so until I have the time and interest to plan that out, I will not be posting anymore chapters.

This chapter was written a while ago, and I just found the file on my computer, so I figured why not post it? My attention has been turned to my new story 'Back to the Past' (name sucks and will be changed eventually), which is about Naruto and Temari being sent back to the days of the clan wars and the time before the reign of the Shodaime Hokage. It happens just after the end of the Valley of the End fight, so you have a general clue as to how old they are and their abilities from canon. The writing style of the first chapter seems to me like it's a LOT different from the writing style of this story, and I honestly don't know why. Probably has to do with the fact that I've been reading Maximum Ride in school… Patterson's style doesn't really go into the character's thoughts; it's just dialogue after dialogue.

That's about all you need to know for now… so if the new story sounds interesting, please take a look. ^^ Sorry for disappointing anyone for taking a break from this story for a while.

UPDATE: I've released one more chapter, which will be the last one for quite a while. Enjoy the extra five thousand words or so! ^^

The Samurai Ninja

Chapter 8: Reunion

By: Zashire

A tall, well built man wandered through the hallway of a large building. He was on his way to report a successful mission to his leader. While he was on his way, one of his good friends stopped him.

"Ah, there you are Asuma! How did the mission go?" the man before him questioned as he walked in front of his friend to stop him from walking any further.

The man who had just arrived at the building sighed. "It was good. Daimyo-sama got caught up with something on the way back, so it took a little longer than it should have. When are you going on your next one, Chiriku?"

The man known as Chiriku smirked at his friend's lazy voice. The man sounded so bored with everything that happened. Someone could have died and he would have the same monotonous voice. He had definitely changed since he had joined the Guard. That seemed to happen to everyone... even those who were ninja beforehand. They came in acting childish, but then quickly changed into an adult within a span of a year or two. It was different for everyone.

"The next one for me is supposed to be in a week from now when Daimyo-sama goes to meet with the Daimyo from Mizu no Kuni. It'll be interesting since we're crossing the sea. I really need to remember to bring something to do while on that mission. It takes a long time to cross the water." Asuma nodded in response to his friend's explanation. It _did_ take a long time to get across the sea to Mizu. He was glad that he had never had to do it before, but was definitely _not_ looking forward to the day that he would have to.

They stood there for a few moments, neither coming up with anything to say. Asuma sighed. "Well, I need to go file the report on what went on. Kami, it's like being a ninja all over again."

Chiriku chuckled slightly. "Well, the jobs are pretty close to each other, just for different leaders. I'll go with you since I have nothing better to do." Asuma nodded and the two men took off in the direction of their leader's office. After walking in silence for a little while, Chiriku spoke up once more. "Isn't today the day that Kurenai-san is coming to the Fire Temple?"

Asuma's eyes widened immediately at the statement. "Shit. I can't believe I forgot about that." Chiriku laughed lightly at the man's reaction, but stopped when he realized that Asuma had started walking faster than him.

He ran to catch up. "Hey, why are you going so fast? It's not like she'll come within the next two minutes while you file that report." Asuma shook his head.

"Last time I said something like that, things didn't work out in my favor. Besides, she'd probably kill me if I didn't at least show up to say 'hi' again after the two years I haven't seen her for." Chiriku gave a nod.

"Well, then... I'll let you go to it." Asuma nodded and took off in the direction of his destination once more. Chiriku sighed. Crazy guy for a friend. He turned around and began walking away.

When he rounded the corner of a hallway, he collided into someone. He stumbled backward a little bit, but managed to catch his footing so he didn't fall. The person he crashed into wasn't as lucky.

xxx

Kurenai was about to tell the person that had crashed into her to watch where they were going when she looked up to see the person holding a hand out to her. She grunted a 'thanks' and took the man's hand. He pulled her to her feet soon after.

"I apologize for not being more careful...?" he began, but stopped because he didn't know the woman's name.

"Yuuhi Kurenai," the woman stated bluntly. She saw the man's eyes widen at her statement and gave him a questioning look.

He quickly regained his composure and clarified. "You're here for Asuma-san, correct?"

She nodded. "You know Asuma-kun?"

He smiled. "Yes, actually. I'm one of the Guard, just as he is." Kurenai's eyes widened a bit.

"But, I didn't think he was supposed to become a member for another month or two," she questioned.

Chiriku nodded. "He wasn't supposed to, but the man who was going to retire so Asuma-san could take his place was killed on one of his last missions, so we decided that Asuma-san should take his place early. We believed he was far more than ready, so we let him take the post."

Kurenai nodded at the explanation. "I wish he had told me sooner."

Chiriku sighed. "I think he might have wanted to surprise you or something. Who knows?" The member of the Guard finally noticed a blob of yellow out of the bottom of his eyes and looked down to see a small child. He bent down to the child's eye level and smiled. "You must be Naruto-san." The small child nodded shyly. "I have heard a lot about you from Asuma-san."

Kurenai smiled, but faltered. "Including the–"

Chiriku cut her off. "Yes. Unfortunately, some of your village's Jounin could not keep their lips sealed and spread rumors about the information. Only the Daimyo and the members of the Guard know. Do not worry, I can promise you that _no_ one here will spread anything about it." The red eyed woman sighed in relief.

Naruto stared up at them oddly. What were they talking about? He had only been able to pick up a little bit of what they were saying, but knew that something was going on. The question was: what was it?

Chiriku regained everyone's attention. "Well, I suppose I should take you to meet Asuma-san. He's with Daimyo-sama right now because he just got back from a mission. I'm sure Daimyo-sama would like to meet you two. He's wanted to see who Asuma-san has been sending the letters to for the past two years."

Kurenai nodded. "I know Naruto wants to meet his dad, too." Chiriku chuckled, having heard about their background story beforehand. It would be interesting, to say the least.

As they began walking toward the Daimyo's office, Kurenai spoke up. "Excuse me, but I didn't catch your name before."

The man nodded. "My name is Sakumoto Chiriku. I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier."

Kurenai nodded. "It's fine, and it's nice to meet you, Chiriku-san."

The member of the Guard smiled. "Likewise, Kurenai-san, Naruto-san." Kurenai smiled, and they continued their walk.

After a few more twists and turns, they made it to a somewhat tall door. The red eyed woman stopped, which caused Naruto to stop, too. Chiriku walked up to the door and knocked loudly. When he heard an 'enter' from the other side, he opened the door and held it open so Kurenai and Naruto could pass through. He followed them in after he passed them.

Before the trio were two men. One was dressed in a somewhat fancy robe, which indicated that he was the Daimyo. The other one was dressed in a loose shirt and a loose pair of pants. He was barefoot like many of the other people she had seen in the temple and had his back to her for a few moments.

When he turned his head around, Kurenai thought she would have melted at how handsome the man was. Aside from the fact that he was smoking a cigarette, he was absolutely gorgeous... with the strong build and wild hair. It reminded her of how Naruto's was. It never went in any particular direction, and a brush would just _not_ go through it. The man also had an interesting looking beard that outlined his face. It just made him that much more attractive.

When the man and her made eye contact, he smiled softly, but turned back to the Daimyo almost instantly, as he had to finish up his meeting.

She almost blushed as she quickly shook her head to make those thoughts go away. No man would ever attract her more than her Asuma. Just thinking about him made her want to see him even more. Where the hell was he? Now that she thought about it... the man before her had an eye color similar to her boyfriend's, but he didn't look anything like him. _Asuma..._

Kurenai was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Chiriku speak.

"Pardon us for the interruption, sir, but I have brought Yuuhi-san. She was scheduled to come today, and I thought you would like to meet her and Naruto-san."

At the mention of Naruto, the man that was seated before the Daimyo snapped his head around to look at the woman again. He hadn't noticed the child that had hidden behind her legs before. The kid was pretty damn good at making himself invisible hen he was nervous.

Kurenai noticed this and gave him a curious look. Why had the mention of Naruto's name cause the man to look back at them? Was he one of the one's who knew about the Kyuubi being sealed inside the child? Did he hold something against the child for what he held? She very much so hoped not.

_He's too cute to think things like that!_

Kurenai's face turned bright red. _No! No! No! _She continued to yell at herself. Thankfully by the time she had started to blush, the man had already turned away. It was too embarrassing. Where was her Asuma?

The Daimyo nodded. "It is fine. I was just finishing up this meeting. You are free to leave when ready, Asuma-san," the man finished with a smirk on his face. He watched as Kurenai's eyes widened and had to contain his laughter.

Asuma stood up and turned around, a movement that allowed Kurenai to take in his full appearance. _This_ was Asuma? What had happened to him over the few short years that had gone by? What had made him become so _handsome_?

She still had wide eyes when he got closer to them. She regained her senses when she felt Naruto pulling on her pant leg, obviously nervous. He was probably wondering who the man was, and she couldn't blame him. All of the pictures that she had shown him of Asuma looked _nothing_ like the man that was in front of her.

When he stopped in front of her, he smiled, seeming to wait for her to make her move. She responded by launching herself into him. He raised his arms and hugged her tightly, the smile still on his face. They had missed each other so much, and now they finally met again.

Asuma let go after a few moments, leaving a still somewhat startled Kurenai. He bent down to see the little blonde child who had been left out in the open when his mother had launched herself away. Asuma smiled down at the child, who still acted shy.

Some of the gears in Naruto's mind seemed to start moving, and he slowly connected the face before him with some of the previous images he had seen. They didn't look too much alike, but they resembled each other somewhat. He decided to give it a shot.

"Daddy?" he asked in curiosity.

Asuma smiled and nodded, and watched as the child walked over and leaned into him, unlike his mother had. The little blonde used his arms to reach as far around his father as he could, which wasn't very far, and gave him what he considered 'a big hug.' The dark haired man hugged his son back, but not as hard as he had to Kurenai because he didn't want to hurt the child with a grip that was too tight.

When Asuma let go, he smiled down at Naruto once more. The little blonde had the biggest grin he could manage on his face... one that looked like it would make his head split. He chuckled at the kid's grin, and stood back up to face Kurenai. He smiled at her and turned to Chiriku.

The man and the Daimyo had smiled the whole time during the family's small reunion. It was heartwarming... especially the part where Kurenai doubted herself in believing that it was _really _Asuma before her. It had been quite entertaining to watch.

Chiriku smiled. "Well, why don't we get you settled into your new home?" The two inactive Konoha ninja gave a nod of agreement. He addressed Kurenai. "Since Asuma has been living in the house for a month or so now, he can show you where it's at. But before then, I believe Daimyo-sama would like to speak with you."

The Daimyo nodded. "You may call me Daiichi for starters." Kurenai nodded. "Well, I welcome you to the Fire Temple. The Daimyo wasn't always joined up with this place, but that is a story for another time." She nodded once more. "Anyway, I would like to welcome you to dinner at my house tonight. My wife wanted to welcome you and Naruto-san, as well as celebrate Asuma-san's movement to his position. We figured it best to do it all in one night. This way you wouldn't miss anything."

Kurenai nodded in thanks and the Daimyo dismissed them, saying he would send someone to tell them when the big dinner was ready. She picked up Naruto, and turned to Asuma, who smiled in response as they left the room.

"I missed you so much," she said as she buried her head into his neck. He put an arm around her and hugged her as best as he could since she was holding their son.

"I missed you, too," he spoke as they continued walking. She smiled into his shoulder and lifted her head, but still remained in his grasp.

"You've changed a lot," she smiled a bit wider.

He smirked. "Good or bad way?" She pushed him a little bit, and he chuckled. "I'll take that as a good way." She grinned as they moved closer and closer to their new home. The day was just getting better and better.

xxx

When they arrived at the house, Asuma held open the door for Kurenai and Naruto. He chuckled when he heard her gasp slightly at how nice the house was. It was a pretty good house... and it came with his service to the Guard, so it didn't cost him anything.

The little blonde seemed to find something that caught his eye after a few moments and got his mother's attention by poking her and then toward the object. She set him on the floor and he ran over to it. Kurenai stood back up and turned to Asuma with a smile. He smiled back.

"So... what's been going on these past few years?" he asked after a few moments of silence.

Kurenai shrugged. "Not much."

Asuma grunted in response. "Not much, huh? Last time I saw Naruto, he was only able to crawl, and now, he's running around and talking his head off." Kurenai flushed in embarrassment. She was so used to the blonde being able to walk and talk that it didn't seem too important anymore. He sighed. "What's been going on with you? You said I've changed... well, so have you."

Kurenai gave a nod. "I'd rather talk about it while sitting down. It's a long story." Asuma nodded and waited for his girlfriend as she placed her sandals by the door. She followed him in the direction that Naruto had gone in and walked up to a couch. They both sat down and began their catching up.

Asuma was happy to hear that everything had been going well, and mentally thanked his teammates for helping out with Naruto. He was also happy to hear that Kurenai was doing good herself, and that nothing bad had happened since he had left.

When it was Asuma's turn, Kurenai became surprised at some of the stories that he told her about his missions. She was happy to hear that he had done well in his training and congratulated him on becoming one of the Guard earlier that he should have. He proved to have many tales to tell by the time he finished.

An hour or so passed by the time they had finished talking. The dark haired woman was slightly surprised by how much time had gone by. It hadn't felt that long. She shrugged... apparently time passed by a lot faster when you were having fun. It had been fun catching up with Asuma. They had both missed each other for a few years, and had finally had a reunion. It was nice, especially since she would be living with him and Naruto from now on.

She was broken out of her thoughts when she heard a knock on the door. Before she even realized he was gone, Asuma was over by the door, getting ready to open it. Her eyes widened slightly. Apparently, he had become a lot faster over the years. That was a quick improvement.

She watched as he opened the door, and wondered who would be there. She felt like smacking herself in the head when she saw it was a maid who had come to let them know that dinner was ready. How had she forgotten about that in such a short period of time? She sighed.

Asuma closed the door when he had finished talking to the woman and turned back to Kurenai. "Well, let's collect Naruto and head out. Saniyumi-san's food is only good when it's warm." Kurenai chuckled. He seemed so at home here. It was just like when they were at the Sarutobi compound. Asuma always acted to casual around some of the most powerful people. It seemed to come with being the son of a Hokage.

She nodded and stood up. "Naruto!" she called out, and watched as a small child came running into the room with a grin on his face. She saw that he had something in his hands and gave him a questioning look. He responded by lifting up the thing he was holding so his mother could see.

The red eyed woman chuckled at the object. It was a small stuffed animal that resembled a weasel. She heard Asuma chuckle a bit too, and turned to him.

He stopped his small laughter. "How did you find it?" he asked the blonde three year old.

Naruto looked up. "Under fluff," he answered simply.

Asuma stared at the child and then at Kurenai. He was going to need to get used to the way Naruto talked. Kurenai sighed.

"I think he means that he found in under a pillow," she clarified. Asuma nodded. That made a _lot_ more sense.

He looked back at Naruto. "It was supposed to be a belated birthday present. Since you found it now, it's yours," he said with a smile. Naruto grinned and ran over to his father and hugged his legs. Asuma chuckled and ruffled the blonde mess of hair.

"Thanks," he said with another grin when he let go.

Asuma shrugged. "No problem. Happy birthday." Naruto smiled and hugged the stuffed animal. "You should probably go put him back on the bed because we're going to go eat now." Naruto gave a nod and ran off.

Kurenai smiled and turned to her boyfriend. "That was nice of you."

Asuma shrugged. "He's our kid now. I thought I'd give him something to play with here. I know you brought some other toys." Kurenai nodded. She pulled out a few summoning scrolls and placed them on the nearest table.

"It was also your birthday a few weeks ago. Should've gotten you something," she said with a sigh. Asuma shrugged.

"I missed yours a few years in a row."

She nodded. "But at least you sent something in the letters."

Asuma sighed again. He honestly didn't care for any gifts. They never seemed to matter... well, extra kunai and shuriken always helped, but that wasn't exactly what he had in mind. He glanced up and watched as Kurenai walked toward him. What was she planning on doing now? His eyes became slightly wider when she saw him breaking his personal space bubble. Not that they had one around each other, but she was still pretty close.

He felt the cigarette he had being pulled out of his mouth, and he watched her curiously. His eyes became a bit wider than they had been when he felt her lips meet his for the first time in several years. It felt good to have her back again. It had been so long since he had seen her, and now she was back.

She wrapped an arm around his neck to deepen the kiss a bit. He did likewise with an arm around her waist. It felt so right to them. Seeing each other after two years of being separated. Even though they had been sending letters to each other, it wasn't the same as being there in person.

Who knows how far they would have gone had they not heard an 'eww' sound coming from the opposite end of the room. Kurenai pulled back to look at the noise maker and saw Naruto standing there. He had an odd look on his face, which cause Kurenai to chuckle a bit. He was already at that phase, huh?

She turned back to Asuma, who was looking slightly embarrassed at the situation. "Why don't we get going like you suggested earlier?" Asuma nodded and let go of his girlfriend. "You shouldn't smoke with Naruto here." He grunted in response. "Fine, just don't do it inside the house." Another grunt. "Get over it. You're not going to win."

He sighed and called Naruto over. The blonde came obediently and stopped in front of his father. Asuma smiled and opened the door so Kurenai and the blonde could walk through. He followed behind them and began to lead them to the Daimyo's dining area.

Kurenai was slightly startled at how large the monastery's 'courtyard' was. She assumed it was also used for practice because she could see a few people every once in a while working on their taijutsu, or something along those lines. She could also see some marks on trees and stumps... looks like this place had something to do with kenjutsu, too. The red eyed woman then wondered how Asuma had been doing with his trench knives. When he had left, he had been working on getting his wind chakra to work with them, but had failed miserably. Maybe he had figured a thing or two out over the years. She would ask him about it later.

Asuma glanced around the courtyard and followed Kurenai's eyesight to see what she was looking at. He would have to give her a tour of the place sometime. She seemed to be pretty interested in the methods of training they used at the temple. He gave a sigh and looked down at Naruto, a movement which almost caused him to break down laughing. The kid had eyes wider than anyone's he had ever seen and was looking all around the practice field in amazement. He stared for a few moments as he watched someone practice with their sword against another. His head followed all of the swift moments in which the blades went. The child seemed to absolutely love it.

The amazement continued for a few minutes until Asuma decided to call them back to reality by telling them that they had arrived. Kurenai's eyes widened at how big the room was. It was probably able to fit everyone at the temple in there. She stood there for a few moments, but realized she had to get moving if she didn't want to be left behind.

When she caught up to Asuma, she was about to bop him, but was cut off by him speaking.

"Thank you for inviting us, Daiichi-sama," the dark haired man said with a bow. The Daimyo nodded, but shrugged it off.

"This is not a large dinner, Asuma-san. You do not need to be so formal," the man responded.

Asuma gave a nod. "Just out of habit, I guess." The Daimyo nodded again.

Kurenai stared at her boyfriend in disbelief. He had _never _been this respectful in the entire time she had known him. It was surprising to her. She gave a mental sigh... it shouldn't be too surprising considering he was around one of the _most_ important people in Hi no Kuni. It must have been different with the Hokage because he was his son. In this case, he wasn't related to the Daimyo in any way, shape, or form, which probably influenced him to show more respect.

_It's a nice improvement, _Kurenai said to herself.

The Daimyo turned. "Let's get you seated and begin. The only people who are attending are those of the Guard and any families they have here." Asuma nodded, and motioned for Kurenai and Naruto to follow them. The little blonde didn't understand, so he just waited. The red eyed woman reached down and grabbed his hand to lead him. Naruto willingly went, but still didn't quite understand what was going on.

The Daimyo led them to one of the round tables that had been prepared by where the other guests were seated, and let them sit down. Everyone took their seats, though Naruto needed some help because he was too short to get in the chair by himself. Back at home, he had used a few books that he had received from his mother to climb onto his chair. It was a lot easier than trying to get in the chair without the books. Asuma had chuckled a bit and moved the boy into the chair. Naruto was seated to the left of Asuma, while Kurenai sat on his right, but together they only took up about half of the table.

Kurenai stared at the other chairs and wondered who would be joining them. She was surprised when the Daimyo and his wife came over and took a few of the seats. Why had they joined them that quickly? It seemed odd that they wouldn't have a table all to themselves, given their positions.

When they sat down, Kurenai looked over the Daimyo's wife for the first time. She was a little on the plump side, but wasn't as large as any of the Akimichi clan. She figured it was probably because she didn't get out much and probably went to all of the feasts the Daimyo went to. She was dressed in a somewhat fancy kimono, but wasn't too dressed up; showing that she knew the dinner wasn't that formal.

Before she sat down, she nodded to the guests, and smiled at them. Her husband pulled out the seat for her, and she took it. He then sat down next to her; leaving one empty seat open to Naruto's other side.

The Daimyo's wife turned to Kurenai and smiled. "I've heard many things about you from Asuma-san, and it is very nice to meet you in person. You're just as beautiful as he said you were." Kurenai blushed at the comment, and so did Asuma. The woman was too good at embarrassing them. Aside from the embarrassment, Kurenai felt good that Asuma had been talking about her while she was gone. It made her feel a little better about the time that he had been gone.

The Daimyo's wife smiled at the two. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Sareki Yanahi, Daiichi-kun's wife."

Kurenai regained her composure and nodded. "Nice to meet you, Yanahi-sama. Well, you probably know my name already, but I'm Yuuhi Kurenai," she said with a smile.

Yanahi waved her hand. "No need to be so formal. Just call me Yanahi-san. I'm fine with it, though when in more public places, I go by Yanahi-sama." Kurenai nodded at the explanation. "Well, it is very nice to meet you dear. I hope we've whipped Asuma-san into shape by now." She chuckled, and so did Kurenai. Asuma sighed. If only she knew what being 'whipped into shape' meant by the temple's standards. It was _nothing _compared to even being an ANBU leader in a hidden village. They didn't care if you came in as a Genin or a Hokage, you were all on the same level there.

The women stopped laughing after a few moments and broke off into conversation with each other. The Daimyo was slowly getting dragged into it, and gave Asuma a look that clearly said 'please save me.' Asuma shook his head. He had been in that situation _far_ too many times, and wasn't about to again. Daiichi looked dejected, but accepted his fate and was dragged into their world.

Asuma looked over to Naruto who was looking around the room curiously and chuckled slightly. "See anything interesting?" he asked the small child.

Naruto nodded. "Lot of people." Asuma smiled at the obvious comment. "Why no one?" the child asked in a confused voice after a few moments, while pointing to the empty chair. Asuma stopped chuckling for a moment. For a kid his age, he had pretty good observation skills.

He sighed. "I don't know. Whoever is supposed to be there obviously didn't make it on time. Probably a relative of Daiichi-sama." Naruto didn't exactly know who 'Daiichi' was because the man hadn't actually said his name to his face yet. He would figure that out later. It still didn't stop him from wondering who was supposed to be seated there.

They were both broken out of there thoughts when they heard a voice from behind them. "Last time I checked, I wasn't related to Daiichi-sama in any way." Asuma's head snapped around to face the person that had spoken. His face broke into a smile when he realized who it was.

Daiichi, who had been tormented by hearing the two women talk about the newest clothes that they had bought, saw his chance for escape, and took it. Who knew Kurenai could talk about something like clothes so much? From what Asuma had told him, she usually didn't care for those kinds of things. Apparently, even he didn't know the red eyed women well enough.

When he looked up to see the person that was approaching them, he nodded toward the man. Just the person he was looking for, and he had come at the right time, too... just in time to save him from the women and their conversation.

"Good evening, Daiichi-sama," the man spoke in a respectful tone. Daiichi smiled and nodded once again.

"Good evening to you, too, Chiriku-san," the Daimyo spoke in an equally respectful tone. "Now please, come sit down. We have been waiting for you to arrive for some time now."

Chiriku gave a nervous laugh and did as ordered. He sat down in the chair that was placed between Naruto and the Daimyo and smiled to the blonde. "Nice to see you again, Naruto-san."

The blonde grinned. "Hi Chi'iku!" The older man chuckled at the child's version of his name. Sooner or later the boy would get the hang of names with the letter 'r' in them, but that was for another time.

He then looked over to Asuma. "How's it been 'catching up' with Kurenai-san and Naruto-san?" Asuma gave him a funny look at how the man had been adding 'san' to Naruto's name every time he said it because it seemed a little odd to be giving that kind of honorific to someone so young.

He sighed and thought about the question. "It was nice. Kurenai-chan had quite a few tales to tell." Hearing about all that had happened while he was away had been nice. He also enjoyed telling her about what had been going on at the temple during the time that she hadn't been seeing him. It was a lot of fun.

"Bring any gifts from Konoha?" Chiriku asked in a curious voice.

"Well, she–" Asuma cut himself off when he realized what he was about to say, and blushed up a storm. Chiriku chuckled somewhat loudly. He hadn't seen that emotion on his friend's face since he had met him. It seemed really out of character for him. He had been able to put two and two together fairly quickly. The two were dating, so she had probably kissed him. Who knows how far they went, but judging by the grimace on Naruto's face, not very.

As soon as Naruto had heard something about a gift, he made a weird face toward his father. He remembered seeing him and his mother doing something 'icky,' as he called it, and tried to get the thought out of his mind. The word 'gift' also brought up another thought. "Weasel!" he said in an excited voice. "Daddy got weasel!"

Asuma sighed and prepared for the question that was sure to come from his friend. He became surprised when after a few moments, Chiriku didn't say anything. He looked up and saw the older Guard member nod.

"So he got you a weasel toy?" Naruto nodded eagerly. Asuma stared at Chiriku. The man noticed and chuckled.

"I have been through all of this before. I almost raised my brother on my own, remember?" Asuma nodded. He had completely forgotten about that. When he first met Chiriku, he seemed more responsible than he should be at his age. Even though he had a five year lead on Asuma, the man shouldn't have been behaving like a forty year old. He was so impassive, but was strict when it came to discipline.

After a year or so, Asuma had finally asked why he was like that. Chiriku had responded that he had a brother he had to look out for when he was little. He had told him a story on how he had raised his brother because his parents were always out in the town. Sure, they provided money for the boys to live on, but they never seemed to give a damn about what they did. So, Chiriku had taken responsibility into his own hands and had acted as a sort of father figure to his younger brother. He had taught him many things that ranged from manners all the way to some taijutsu. It had taken a toll on his immaturity, though. He had to grow up quickly, thanks to his parents pretty much leaving them, so he could be responsible for his younger brother.

Asuma had slowly become friends with Chiriku after that. He had also told his new friend about his adopted son, Naruto. Chiriku had taken an interest in him and said that he would like to meet him one day, especially when he had heard of the Kyuubi being sealed inside of him. It would be nice to help his friend out with taking care of his adopted son. He had told him that if he needed any help, he would be there. Asuma had thanked him for that.

He was broken out of his thoughts by Chiriku's voice. "So, what is your weasel's name?" the man asked in a curious voice. Naruto stared at him blankly and shrugged.

"Dunno," he replied shortly. Chiriku chuckled.

"Why don't you come up with one, then?" Chiriku and Asuma chuckled at how hard the boy seemed to be thinking on that one. When he looked like he was done, Chiriku asked him what he had come up with.

"I'unno." Chiriku's smile almost faltered at that. What had he been thinking about that took so long then? "Wheezie?" he asked, breaking the older man's train of thought.

Asuma nodded. "Wheezie sounds good. Better tell him that when we get back home." Chiriku smiled as he watched the blonde and his friend laugh and joke around for a while after that. It was a sweet sort of father-son moment. It reminded him of the times he had with his brother so long ago. Those had been the fun days, where he would be in the position of Asuma, and his brother would be in Naruto's. Even though their parents never really cared much for them, they still had each other, and made it through to the end. How he missed those days...

"The dinner is ready," called Daiichi, which gained everyone's attention.

xxx

The meal passed by quickly. It was quite possibly the largest thing that Naruto had ever seen in his life. He had been so used to everything just being something small enough that would just make him full enough. But not this time. The entire table had been covered in food. He hadn't been able to each too much, but by the time he was finished, he was stuffed. Apparently, someone had heard he liked ramen.

When Chiriku learned of the child's taste in ramen, he was surprised. He too liked ramen, but finding someone of that age that already had such an addiction to one type of food didn't happen too often... especially not toward that bowl of noodles. Chiriku hadn't been too surprised by the size of the meal, mainly because he had been to many dinners like it before. They were all around the same size, and this one was no different.

Asuma sighed as he finished. It had been a complicated meal. For every bite or two of food he had, he would have to help Naruto with something. He was glad that the kid could at least eat ramen by himself, because if he hadn't been able to, the dinner would have been a whole lot longer. He had been thankful for Chiriku's help at some other points in time. When his friend had finished, he had offered to help feed Naruto. It had worked out quite nicely.

The dinner ended with the food being taken away, and people finishing up their conversations. Slowly, the large feast died down with people leaving and several helpers coming out to clean off the tables. The Daimyo and his wife were some of the last to leave. It was only proper that they thank the others for coming and bid them farewell. Chiriku was another one to stay somewhat late, along with Asuma, Kurenai, and Naruto. Kurenai continued her conversation with the Daimyo's wife, since they had been seated right next to each other. They occasionally brought Asuma or the Daimyo in, but soon let them go because of their 'unwilling to talk' act.

After a while, Kurenai leaned over to Asuma and pointed to Naruto, who was falling asleep in his chair. She suggested that they get going and Asuma agreed with her. The two stood up and said their goodbyes to the others, and Kurenai went over to picking up the sleepy blonde. As soon as his head hit her shoulder he fell asleep. The others chuckled at how it played out and waved them off.

As they walked back to the house, Kurenai noticed that some people were _still_ practicing in the open field. What were they doing that late? It had to be at least midnight. Sure, training was one thing, but when you could hardly see the other person because it was so dark was another. She leaned over to Asuma.

"Hey, Asuma-kun, what are those people doing out here this late at night? Shouldn't they get some rest so they can actually do something tomorrow?" she asked in a confused voice, while still looking at the people in the dark.

He sighed. "It's an exercise that we all had to go through when we first got here. You don't come out until about nine in the evening, and then you stay until six or seven the next morning. It's to practice combat in the dark, and to test your endurance. They don't expect you to make it the entire time. Most people crap out at around two in the morning."

Kurenai nodded, but then thought of something. "How long did you make it?"

"Five," was his short response. Kurenai smiled. That sounded about right for him. On missions, he was always the one who was able to stay up all night if he had to. He wouldn't usually volunteer to be the one with a night watch like that, but if he was chosen for it, he would complete his task. She figured that the fact that they were moving around so much helped keep them awake, too.

They walked a little farther until they came up to their destination point. Asuma unlocked the door and they all wandered in. Kurenai slipped her sandals off and waited for Asuma to tell her where the bedrooms were. She didn't remember which way Naruto had run off in, so that didn't help her.

Asuma led her up a flight of stairs and opened a door that led to a blank bedroom that was pretty much considered a guest room. He figured that he would let Kurenai unload whatever she had with her into it whenever she felt like it. She went into the room and set Naruto down on the bed. She tucked him and said 'goodnight' before kissing him on the forehead and leaving. Asuma smiled at the scene before he said a 'goodnight' and shut the door behind him.

He led Kurenai to where their room was and closed the door behind him. They were close enough so that if Naruto cried out in the middle of the night, they were guaranteed to hear it. He sighed and wandered over to the bed. Kurenai pulled out on of her scrolls and released a few set of clothes from them. She went to the bathroom to change and brush her teeth before she came back out. Asuma took his turn and came back out after a few minutes. The two soon found themselves sleeping next to each other, thinking about the day that had gone by, and what life would be like from there on out...


	9. Samurai Ninja and First Mission

NOTE: If you haven't read chapter eight yet, go back and do so, otherwise you probably won't understand what's going on. I've uploaded two chapters today.

The Samurai Ninja

Chapter 9: Samurai Ninja and First Mission

By: Zashire

"Daddy! Can I go practice with Chiriku-sensei yet?" a blonde haired child moaned in a begging voice.

"Not until you finish cleaning your room. Your mother told you to do so when she left this morning. So get to it," the boy's father responded in a somewhat ordering tone.

The child grumbled. "But I just cleaned it last weekend! It didn't get dirty that quickly... unless Maui-chan got to it! Why can't she leave my room alone for more than a day?" the boy complained.

Asuma chuckled. "If I recall correctly, you were the one who wanted her the most when we got her. You need to take responsibility for the consequences of your actions."

"But she's so cute! How could something like her be that troublesome?" the little boy wondered out loud.

"Kami, you sound like my friend from the Nara clan, Naruto," Asuma mumbled to himself. The blonde tilted his head to the side because he couldn't hear what his father had said. The taller man shook his head. "Just clean your room to make your mother happy, okay? Then, you can go do whatever you would like with Chiriku-san."

Naruto grumbled, but nodded. He was fighting a losing battle, and there was no point in going on. He turned around and wandered up the stairs and into his room, in a slumped position. He was only five years old! He already had to do enough chores as it was... but cleaning his room on what seemed like a daily basis was getting on his nerves. He really liked Maui, but she could cause problems for him that just seemed to constantly build up and never go away.

Just before he entered his room, he heard a barking noise and turned his head. Speak of the devil. The furry animal came running up to him and panted with its tongue hanging out the side of its mouth. The animal stood at a fairly tall height... just under Naruto's shoulder.

"Hey, Maui-chan!" Naruto said with a smile on his face as he rubbed the top of the animal's head. Maui was a somewhat large dog. She was a Husky that had two bright blue eyes that were similar to the color of Naruto's, only a little bit lighter. The dog had come from Yuki no Kuni as a present to the Daimyo to show their appreciation for an alliance between their countries. One had also been sent to Konoha, but that was a different matter.

When the dog arrived, the Daimyo found that he had to give it away. Apparently, Yuki no Kuni hadn't known that his wife was allergic to furry animals, which was pretty much why there were hardly any in the temple. The only ones that lived there were kept away from Yanahi, usually in the owner's home. The Husky had been offered to any of the members of the Guard, and no one seemed interested... except for Naruto.

As soon as the child had laid eyes on the animal, he seemed to form some attachment to it. He had asked his parents if they could get her, and they eventually caved in after a bit of persuasion. They had compromised that Naruto would help take care of the animal, at least until he was older, when he would have to take just about full responsibility.

That had apparently included cleaning up after any messes the animal made of his room. It didn't seem fair in his opinion. Why should he have to clean up _his _stuff if his _dog_ was the one who ruined how it was set up in the first place? He sighed. That seemed to be how life worked.

He decided to clean up as quickly as he could so he could go train with Chiriku. For just under six months, he had been allowed to join in some of his father's _very_ light training exercises. He had thought that his father's trench knives were the coolest thing ever and anted to learn how to use something like them. Asuma had told him that he would have to train first, and the blonde had eagerly accepted... until he figured out how boring training could be.

It was sometimes fun to do... but it got so repetitive after a while. However, he didn't let that get in the way of things. No matter how long it took, he would learn how to do was his father could. He just couldn't pass the opportunity up. _Ooh, big word!_ he thought to himself.

Over the few years that had gone by, his mother had taught him a few large words. He was working on incorporating them into his thought process. It wasn't that easy, but he would get the hang of it sooner or later... preferably sooner.

Speaking of his mother, he had overheard something about the word 'engagement' from her and his father. He didn't know what it meant, but she seemed to be very happy when she told Yanahi about it. The Daimyo's wife had been keeping an eye on him for the day, and when his mother had come to pick him up, they had gone off into conversation. That was when she told her about it, and when Naruto overheard. What did it mean anyway? It had to be something good. Well, at least, he hoped it was. If his mommy and daddy were happy, then he was too.

Before he realized it, he had finished cleaning up the mess that was made in his room. He gave a silent cheer and stood up and walked over to the mirror. He looked into the reflective object and nodded to himself. He was in the right outfit. That was good. A black short sleeved shirt, and a pair of black sweatpants. He looked like a miniature version of his father on his training days.

But today wasn't going to be any old training day. No. Today was the day he was going to get to try using a sword for the first time! He had done all of the training that Chiriku had wanted him to do, and was now ready to put it to use. He quickly turned to his dog that was standing in his doorway.

"See ya later, Maui-chan!" he called out before running past her and down the hall. The dog's head turned to watch him run, and when he made it to the stairs, she entered his room. It was too nice to pass up the opportunity of sleeping on his bed when his mother would never allow it. So, what better time to do it than when no one was home? She wandered on over to the boy's bed and hoped up onto it. She just had to make sure she woke up before he came back. Shouldn't be too hard considering Naruto slamming the door sounding like an atomic bomb going off. The dog gave a sort of sigh and fell to sleep.

xxx

Chiriku heard something along the lines of 'I'm here!' coming from the direction that Asuma's house was in. So, they finally let Naruto go, huh? He would have to help the boy in the future with learning how to remain at least a bit quieter when coming over to someone. But hey, how much could you expect out of a five year old? In his opinion, the child was doing great as it was. He didn't usually come across a five year old who was already training in things that would help lead to becoming a ninja in the future. Naruto was probably one of the first... and he was doing a great job of it.

"Good morning, Chiriku-sensei," the child called in an overly happy voice. Apparently he remembered what today was. He also remembered to use 'good morning' rather than 'hi' or something along those lines. That had been one of the rules that Chiriku had drilled into his brain. He never thought 'hi' was an appropriate way to greet the person that was training you, at least not if you were in actual training. More informal events could be spent like that, but not when your teacher was trying to teach you a lesson.

Asuma had always said that Chiriku took some things _way_ too seriously... like training on a five year old. Chiriku had always come back with something, but it would never stop Asuma from bugging him. And then there was Kurenai. That woman had taken forever for them to persuade her to let Naruto do _some_ training. She didn't want the child to get badly injured at such a young age. They still thought one of the winning arguments had been that Naruto needed something to do around the temple since there were no other children his age. Sure, he had Maui, but the dog seemed to like to sleep during certain parts of the day, and could only play with Naruto for so long before she got bored. Kurenai had tried to come back with the fact that he was always able to see the Daimyo's wife, except for when she was out of town, but there still remain the fact that the Daimyo didn't have any children that were his age. He had one grandson that Naruto met twice, but aside from that, there wasn't anyone.

The red eyed woman had finally caved in, but made sure that any chores Naruto had were completed before he went off to have fun. Naruto had grumbled in response, but had agreed since it was the only way his mother would compromise on it.

Over the years that had gone by, Kurenai had found a job in the nearest town. It was a three mile walk from the temple, but if she took to the trees she could make it their within ten to fifteen minutes. It all depended on how much chakra she pumped into her legs, and how close to being late she was.

One morning had cut it _far_ too close for her taste. It had happened about a month ago on a Friday night. She had forgotten that she had work in the morning because of something to do with the inventory, and had gone out with Asuma, at his request. He was acting a little nervous all evening, and she couldn't help but wonder why. He never behaved like that... he was always an easy going guy, but could take charge of something if need be.

Toward the end of the date, she had figured out precisely _why_ he had been acting weirdly all night. He had taken her to one of the largest lakes in Hi no Kuni, and they had enjoyed a long walk around it under the sun setting sky. She had been able to see stars in one direction, and the sun in the other, and in her opinion, it was one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen. When they finished their long walk, well just before the end, he had taken her to the top of an over look and they had watched the sun go down a bit, the bright colors reflecting off the water.

Just before it had gone down completely, Asuma had stood up, making Kurenai think that they were leaving. She hadn't wanted to leave that quickly, but agreed. After she had stood up all the way, and had taken one step forward, she had turned back to see what was holding Asuma up. He held her hand in his and was down on one knee. She remembered how wide her eyes had been and had almost forgotten to listen to what he was saying.

He had asked her what any woman that had been dating a guy for so long and really loved wanted to hear. She had said yes immediately and moved forward to kiss him. She had almost pushed too far, all the way to the point where they were on the edge of the cliff. She had blushed in embarrassment as she went to help Asuma off the ground. He hadn't seemed to care one bit and had pulled her into a kiss while lying on his back.

They had stayed on the cliff for what seemed like hours before they finally decided to return home. They would have to get Naruto from Chiriku in the morning since he allowed the blonde to sleep over, but they weren't too worried about that. When they arrived at the temple, they immediately went home. Kurenai was exhausted from the day and just wanted to curl up in her bed and fall asleep. Asuma pretty much went with anything Kurenai wanted to do since he was still shocked that he had managed to pop the question to her like that. They had both quickly fallen asleep after that.

The next morning hadn't been so nice to them. Since they had stayed out so late, both of them had slept in. Kurenai was the first to wake up out of the duo. When she had looked at the clock in the room, she had nearly jumped out of bed. She had immediately shook Asuma awake and told him to go get Naruto. He had almost left the room in nothing but his boxers, and she had to yell at him to change his clothes before leaving. She had taken the quickest shower of her life, and was in a new pair of clothes, almost before Asuma even made it to the closet. How he survived on missions, she would never know.

Staying out that late, while it had been nice, had caused her to make her jump to her work in record time. Chiriku could still remember seeing how dead Asuma looked that morning when he came to get Naruto. He and Kurenai had spent way too much time out the night before.

Chiriku shook his head clear of those memories when he felt someone tugging on his pants. He looked down to see Naruto standing there with a somewhat concerned expression on his face. The member of the Guard shook his head.

"Sorry about that, Naruto. Let's get started, shall we?" the man asked, knowing exactly which buttons to press to make Naruto get back on topic. The blonde responded with a large grin and a nod. He was ready. Chiriku nodded back and pulled out a storage scroll.

Naruto had seen them many times before from his parents, so he wasn't surprised when Chiriku used one. What _did_ surprise him was what came out of the scroll. When Chiriku moved his hands away from the parchment, Naruto could see a somewhat small wooden sword in on top of it.

Chiriku turned his head. "You didn't think I would let you use a _real_ sword on the first day of training, did you?" Naruto grumbled, but shook his head. The older man chuckled and picked up the small sword before rolling up the scroll and putting it back in his pocket. "This is the sword you will be using until you master some of the techniques I will show you with it." The blonde nodded and took the wooden weapon from his sensei. He held it by the handle with both of his hands before looking toward Chiriku for further instruction.

The Guard member shook his head, and used his hand to pull Naruto's left hand away from the sword. "This weapon is not meant to be used with two hands – just one." Naruto fumbled around with the sword for a minute to hold it still, but nodded.

"Before we begin, what was the rule you learned when facing someone as a samurai?" Chiriku questioned the blonde boy in front of him. He had taught Naruto long ago that the members of the Guard were not ninja, but samurai. The child hadn't known the difference between the two, and had questioned his sensei immediately about it. His mother had taught him several things about ninja, while Chiriku had explained what a samurai was briefly, but he could never quite figure out what the difference was. Chiriku had explained to him that a ninja was someone who quite frequently attacked their enemies from the darkness and snuck up on them, while samurai...

"Samurai never attack an unarmed opponent."

That was it. That was the difference between a samurai and a ninja. The codes that they followed. Ninja could care less whether their enemy was armed or not, but samurai were expected to follow a more honorable code in which they waited for their opponent to have a chance to raise their sword to fight back.

Chiriku gave a small smile and nodded briefly. "That is correct." He pulled out a wooden sword of his own, one that was far longer than Naruto's, and motioned for the child to come over to him. The blonde did as instructed as was soon right in front of his sensei. Chiriku began to go through a motion which he told Naruto to follow, but was slightly surprised when the child just stood there. He gave the blonde a questioning look.

"Chiriku-sensei, before we begin, I wanted to ask you something. How is it that you and daddy were both able to go from being ninja to being samurai if the two follow different codes?" Naruto tilted his head to the side in confusion.

The older man chuckled and stood up from his stance. "I was wondering when you would ask that." The blonde pouted. "While it is true that the code of the ninja goes against the code of the samurai... there are ways to go around that and still manage to follow both. Your father and I have both managed to accomplish it, and if you desire to be a ninja in the future, you can too. The people who do accomplish this are sometimes called 'samurai ninja,' for obvious reasons. You are on the road of the samurai right now, and the moment when you take your katana in the future, if you make it that far, you will be expected to follow the code of the samurai. The same goes for a ninja who receives his or her forehead protector. If you wish to do both, then you must find your own way to follow both codes. Everyone who has done it has gone through with it in different ways. I will not tell you the way I went through with it because it is something you need to learn on your own."

Naruto nodded slightly. It sort of made sense when he thought about it. His confused expression still remained.

Chiriku sighed. "I'll tell you one thing: the samurai who wields his katana, wields his code." Naruto continued to look confused. "I do not expect you to understand this right now, Naruto. Just remember this for the future, understood?" The blonde nodded. His sensei's quote was short enough to remember. It wouldn't be too hard.

"Now that your question is answered, let us get started." Naruto snapped his attention back to his sensei and prepared the wooden sword in his right hand like his sensei had instructed earlier. He followed Chiriku's motions as he shifted into the first stance. Chiriku turned his head to Naruto. "Pay close attention to this, because from now on, we will be ending practice with a short spar based on what I've taught you that day."

The blonde gulped. This wouldn't turn out well. He soon realized his sensei was moving on, and quickly began to follow it. He couldn't fall behind... especially not if he was going to get his ass kicked by his sensei in the next hour or so.

xxx

The blonde five year old trudged home with several bruises on various places of his body. Had today been a _real_ sword fight, he would have been killed over a thousand times by his sensei. Chiriku was excellent with a real sword to begin with, but when he got his hands on one made of wood, he entered an entirely new world... one where his opponent wouldn't want to be if he did. Sadly, Naruto happened to be that opponent.

All he knew was that he had a long way to go if he was going to become a good swordsman like his father and Chiriku. He knew it would take long, but he had underestimated the amount of injuries that he had been given. His sensei hadn't given him too many... most of the time, he could tell that the Guard member was going out of his way _not_ to hurt Naruto. There were times though when he would intentionally hit the blonde pretty hard. He didn't want the training to be made out easy for the five year old, but he also didn't want it to be made out as impossibly hard.

The fact that he healed quickly was another bonus. He didn't know _why _he was like that, but ever since he had started training, whenever he was injured, his wound would be gone before anyone had time to get him anything to make it better. Chiriku used this to go out a little bit more against the child. Naruto took it as using an unfair advantage, but Chiriku had responded that any advantages that one found in a battle were never unfair, and could be used against your opponent whenever you needed to.

It still didn't stop Naruto from complaining.

He shook his head clear and went up to the door to his house and opened it. He called out to his father, who came walking into the room.

"How did training go?" he asked the child with a smirk. The blonde grumbled and went to the stairs. Asuma chuckled. "Might want to hurry up there. I think Maui stayed in your room the entire time you were gone. You don't want to have to clean it again, do you?" Asuma almost went into full blown laughter at the look of horror Naruto had on his face. It was priceless.

The child pivoted on one foot and ran up the stairs as fast as he could. He shot into his room, and sighed in relief when he saw Maui, asleep on his bed. Good. She hadn't made any kind of mess for him to clean up. Truth be told, neither Asuma nor Naruto cared if Maui slept on the blonde's bed. It was Kurenai who had made the rule, and they had an unofficial agreement that she would be the only on to enforce it. So, Maui had been allowed to sleep on Naruto's bed as long as Kurenai wasn't home.

Naruto pet the dog's head as he walked by, and watched as her eyes slowly drifted open. When she realized who it was, she yawned. Apparently, she hadn't been able to wake up before Naruto got back because she hadn't heard the loud noise. His father had closed the door, so it didn't make any noise. She let her tongue fall out the side of her mouth as Naruto continued to scratch her ears. She eventually wound up lying on her back on the bed and let Naruto rub her stomach. It felt really nice after a good hour or two long nap.

The blonde stopped rubbing her belly a few minutes after he started to go get changed. He was really sweaty and didn't always like to where the clothes he trained in around the house. Yes, they were comfortable, but when he became sweaty, it slowly became annoying. He walked over to his closet and changed into an orange short sleeved shirt and another pair of black sweatpants. It was almost the exact same thing as his training outfit, but it was a _lot_ more comfortable.

He could still remember how annoyed his mother had been when he had chosen the shirt from a clothing store in the town that she worked in. She really hadn't wanted to get it for him, because the color was too bright, but she had eventually agreed to buy him a darker shade of orange. He had been sad that he couldn't get the bright one, but found himself liking the darker one better. It was easier for people to look at him without getting blinded.

He gave a sigh. He didn't want to think about clothes right then. His dad said something about having to go on a mission earlier that morning, and he was probably holding him up. Maybe he would be sent to his 'grandma's' house, as he put it, while his father was gone. Grandma Yanahi was really nice to him. Her grandson was also nice, but he didn't see much of him, so that usually left her. His 'grandpa' was usually away since every time his father was sent on a mission, it would be with his grandpa. That only left him to see his grandma or 'Uncle Chiriku,' who was usually gone with his father. This time he was sure he would be seeing his grandma, and he couldn't wait!

"Naruto! Are you done yet?" he heard his father call him from downstairs.

"Just a minute!" he called back. He ran over to Maui and gave her one last pet. "Make sure you're out of my room the next time you hear the front door open. Mommy won't be happy if she finds you in here," he said in a quieter voice. The dog seemed to understand him and jerked her head up and down once. That was new. He shook his head. "Love you," he said and hugged her quickly, before darting out of the room.

He ran down the stairs and met his father in the front room again. His father was wearing the outfit he wore to go on missions with the Daimyo. It reminded him of a man's kimono... but it was one meant for battle. It was white, just like all of the other members of the Guard. Underneath the somewhat large battle robe, he wore a black skintight t-shirt, along with a pair of matching black sweatpants. His outfit was completed with a sash tied around his waist with the kanji for 'fire,' which marked him as one of the Guard, and a pair of black ninja sandals... one of the few things ninja and samurai had in common. The last thing Naruto noticed was a katana in its sheath that was tied to his father's waist by his sash. His father hardly ever pulled out his katana. Most of the time he only used his trench knives. It was really big.

His father smiled and helped him put his sandals on so they could get going. They didn't have much time before he had to report to the Daimyo.

When everyone was ready, Asuma handed Naruto and light jacket to put on. He did so, and watched as his father opened to door. They both went through and Asuma closed it behind them before they started heading through the training area.

Naruto soon realized that they had passed Yanahi's house, and were on their way to somewhere else. "Where are we going?" the blonde asked in a curious voice.

Asuma looked down and smiled. "You get to go with me on my mission today. Daiichi-sama requested that you come." The blonde tilted his head in confusion. Asuma sighed. "We're going on a mission that involves a few children that he thinks you will be able to help feel at home here."

"Kids are coming here? I thought I was the only one," he pondered out loud.

Asuma nodded. "You _were _the only one here. A few more are coming."

Naruto grinned. Maybe he could become friends with them. They would be his first friends, aside from Maui. Maybe he could show the Maui! They would have to live her just as much as he did. Who couldn't like the fuzz ball? No one, that's who.

Asuma smiled slightly at the blonde's enthusiasm. He hoped the mission would go over easily enough. It was also a matter of how friendly the children would be, given the circumstances that they were under. He didn't know if they would want to have anything to do with anyone once they got to the temple. This would be hard. At least he had packed a few storage scrolls with some food and extra changes of clothes in them if need be for on the way back. He didn't know how far it would be to their destination, so he had packed for a few days worth of a trip. He sighed and followed the eager child as they made their way to the Daimyo's office. _I hope this goes over well_...

xxx

The Daimyo stood near the window in his office as he waited for the members of the Guard to arrive. So far, Chiriku, and one other by the name of Haido had shown up, but the other two he was waiting on were nowhere to be seen. Not that they were late, but he wanted to get going as soon as possible. It would be interesting to have Naruto coming along on the mission. Naruto seemed to love going outside of the temple with his mother and father, so this was just taking it to the next level.

They were almost a hundred percent guaranteed that they wouldn't run into any trouble on the mission, just for the fact that it was a diplomatic meeting. The Hokage would be there, too, and he wondered what Naruto would think by seeing his 'grandfather' again for the first time since he was a baby. It would be interesting. He would probably take to him fairly quickly, but still, being the one to provide the opportunity made him feel good.

Naruto was also needed for several other reasons. The main one being helping the children feel welcome. He had such a bright personality, that he doubted anyone could resist being friends with the child, but that was more important for when they got there. What he needed to think about right now was when the hell Asuma, Naruto, and Karuki were going to get there.

Just as the thought went through his mind he heard the door to the room open. In walked the three people that he had been thinking about only moments prior. That was an odd coincidence. He shrugged it off and waited for the group to come over to him. He greeted them when they nodded, and decided that it was time to begin the mission explanation. He hoped it wouldn't take too long. He really wanted to get on the road as soon as possible to avoid being late.

"So, here is what we need to do..."

xxx

"So," an older man in a white robe sighed. "You two will take care of business around here for the next few days, correct?" The two people before him nodded. "Very well, then. Is everyone else ready to go? We need to head out within the next hour or so." The others in the room nodded.

"We are ready, Hokage-sama," the man in the front spoke with a nod. He had on almost all black clothes. The only thing that distinguished him from the rest of the group was a mask that looked somewhat similar to the design of a dog.

"Very well then, Inu-san," the Hokage responded. He turned back to the two that were off to his right. "Thank you, Homura, Koharu, for taking care of things while I settle the terms of this alliance."

They both nodded. "No thanks are needed, Hokage-dono," Koharu stated. "We are just doing our duty to the village." Hiruzen nodded. Even after all these years, it _still_ felt weird being called 'Hokage' by his old two teammates. Whenever it was just them, they would call him 'Hiruzen,' but if it had to do with business, it was 'Hokage.'

He sighed and stood up from his seat. "Let us go, then." The group of ANBU nodded to each other and, at the same time as Hiruzen, they all used Shunshin to teleport to the front gate of the village.

Homura sighed. "I swear Hiruzen was hiding a smile the entire time. He loves going on these kinds of missions." Koharu nodded.

"Well, we cannot just leave this here. We need to get at least _some_ of it done. I think that stack is due today," she said in frustration, while pointing to the large mounds of paperwork on their teammate's desk. Homura grumbled something along the lines of 'so not fair.' "You sound like a child," Koharu said in an annoyed voice. She walked over to the chair and began to work on some of the paper. Homura sighed and soon joined her. At least there were two of them to do it. It was a lot better than one person because they could get a lot more done in the same time span.

It also made it twice as fun to get revenge on the Hokage when he came back...


End file.
